News stories from 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

Contrary to USDA findings, California has high rate of food stamp participation, says UC Berkeley study
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has significantly underestimated California’s success in getting food stamps to those eligible for them, according to a new study by the University of California, Berkeley’s Data Archive & Technical Assistance (UC DATA) program.
(23 December)

New study looks at Bush administration school reforms
A new study shows that thousands of California schools are falling short of new federal standards, not due to faltering achievement overall, but because their diversity triggers many more hurdles than schools serving more homogenous students. Not succeeding in just one category can spell failure for the entire school, the report says.
(23 December)

Noted vitamin researcher Esmond Snell, former biochemistry chair at UC Berkeley, has died at 89
Esmond Emerson Snell, a leading biochemist and vitamin researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, who discovered several B vitamins, including folic acid, in the mid-1900s, died Dec. 9, in Boulder, Colo.
(22 December)

UC Berkeley student wins prestigious Marshall Scholarship
Elizabeth Wang, a UC Berkeley student with a profound interest in human rights work, has been awarded a Marshall Scholarship, considered one of the highest honors for college students. She will use the scholarship to attend the London School of Economics' master's program in human rights.
(18 December)

Point of View: What's the stereotype of Berkeley, and is it accurate?
Those of us who study or work at UC Berkeley are accustomed to a certain reaction when we first mention the university. People have an image of the place — how we look, the way we dress, even what we think — that may or may not fit reality. We questioned five students randomly about where Berkeley's image and their own experiences overlap.
(18 December)

Winter break empties campus at UC Berkeley
Denizens of UC Berkeley are making for the exits again as the campus heads into its annual winter break. Most campus units will be closed from Wednesday, Dec. 24, through New Year's Day.
(18 December)

Tel Dor, Israel archaeological project seeking summer volunteers
Professor Andrew Stewart has begun the annual recruitment of volunteers for the UC Berkeley summer archaeological excavation at Tel Dor, Israel.
(18 December)

More than 33,000 students are enrolled at UC Berkeley,official fall data show
More than 33,000 undergraduate and graduate students - including about 3,600 new freshmen - are enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, according to final registration figures released today (Thursday, Dec. 18) by university officials.The data show a slight dip in enrollment, but numbers generally remain comparable to last year's.
(18 December)

Bancroft Library kicks off renovation campaign
Plans to repair and renovate the University of California, Berkeley's 50-year-old Bancroft Library have received a big boost, thanks to a $750,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and an anonymous $5 million gift.Charles Faulhaber, the James D. Hart Director of The Bancroft Library, says the grant announced on Dec. 10 brings total revenues raised and pledged for the upgrade project to $12.5 million, more than half of the estimated $20 million needed.
(17 December)

Single gene plays key role in neural tube defects
Spina bifida and other so-called neural tube defects have decreased dramatically since pregnant women began taking folic acid supplements, but nearly a third of all cases are genetic and unrelated to folic acid deficiency. Though more than 50 genes are known to be involved in spinal cord closure in the fetus, none stood out until now. UC Berkeley researchers have found a single gene that seems to trigger the complicated process of neural tube closure in vertebrates.
(15 December)

Berkeley names new law school dean
Christopher Edley Jr., a Harvard University law professor and national leader in civil rights law and public policy, has been named dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall).
(11 December)

Radioactive potassium may be major heat source in Earth's core
The Earth's iron core churns constantly, acting like a dynamo to generate a protective magnetic field around the planet. What fuels this dynamo is primarily heat from the decay of radioactive elements -- or so geophysicists think. New experiments show that radioactive potassium may be a significant source of this core heating.
(10 December)

Ecologist fulfills his dream with mission to space
Charismatic British-born astronaut Piers Sellers thrilled an audience of more than 150 on December 7 with photos and a video of his mission in October 2002 to help construct the International Space Station.
(09 December)

Gene mutation leads to super-virulent strain of TB, finds new study
Disabling a set of genes in a strain of the tuberculosis bacteria suprisingly led to a mutant form of the pathogen that multiplied more quickly and was more lethal than its natural counterpart, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. The researchers say the study sheds light on the mechanisms used by a pathogen that now infects one-third of the world's population and kills 2 million people per year.
(08 December)

Shifting responsibility for public services from state to counties led to decreased health spending in California, finds new analysis
After California's 1991 Realignment Bill was enacted, the responsibility for providing health, mental health and social services shifted from the state to the counties. A new analysis, published by the Petris Center at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, finds that after the bill was enacted, per capita spending for health services fell by about nine percent. Researchers say the brief raises concerns about the effects of decentralizing services.
(08 December)

Berkeley Scholars to Cal program teams current students with area youngsters
It's common knowledge that mentoring helps students with their studies. But what if a fifth grader was guaranteed a mentor for eight years straight, and for four to six hours every week? And what if that student and his or her family received other services to help keep them on track? This kind of attention is more than just a dream for 40 at-risk Berkeley school district middle school students in the Berkeley Scholars to Cal program at Stiles Hall, a non-profit center adjacent to the University of California, Berkeley.
(08 December)

UC Berkeley unveils its first Berkeley Book List for readers everywhere
If there's an intellectually curious reader on your holiday shopping list, consider browsing through the new online Berkeley Book List, the campus's first list of suggested reading material about a variety of academic disciplines. The 88 books, designed primarily for readers at the college reading level and above, were chosen by 15 professors in the College of Letters & Science with expertise in subjects including math, history, geology and anthropology.
(05 December)

UC Berkeley's mid-year graduates will don caps and gowns for Dec. 6 convocation
This year, for the first time, December graduates of the University of California, Berkeley, will dress in traditional caps and gowns for a formal graduation ceremony this Saturday, Dec. 6, at 11 a.m. at Zellerbach Hall.
(04 December)

Stormy Space Weather Slips Through The Cracks
UC Berkeley space scientists have discovered a crack in the Earth's magnetic shield that lets in stormy space weather. This new discovery could help space physicists give better estimates of the effects of severe space weather that disrupts communications and endangers astronauts and satellites.
(03 December)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(03 December)

The ‘Queen of Dwinelle’ steps down
On Jan. 2, 2004, Ann Juell will end her long tenure at the university when she retires from her position as an administrative specialist in Educational Technology Services (ETS).

(03 December)

Ron Gronsky: leading by anticipation
In a recent interview with the Berkeleyan, Ron Gronsky spoke at length about a wide range of topics that concern him — both as this year’s Senate leader and as a faculty member of 25 years’ standing whose affection for the campus and its tradition of excellence grows, he insists, the more he learns about them.
(03 December)

Wide net cast in search for next chancellor
The search for Berkeley’s ninth chancellor is gearing up, following Robert Berdahl’s announcement of his intention to step down in June 2004.
(03 December)

Alice Sebold waxes prosaic
“The way I work makes no sense,” said author Alice Sebold, by way of introducing a rapt Zeller-bach Hall audience to the topic of her lecture, the creative process. While Sebold’s approach may make no logical sense, by speaking about favorite items she keeps on her desk for inspiration, the author offered insight into both the reasons why she writes and her intuitive approach to the task.
(03 December)

New campuswide e-mail system to replace faltering UCLink
UC Berkeley e-mail experts are pulling a switch on the seasons, with death in the spring – last March's weeklong UCLink meltdown – to be followed by rebirth in the winter, with the planned January launch of a brand new campuswide e-mail service.
(03 December)

Clark Kerr's legacy: 1960 Master Plan transformed higher education
Like so many things Californian, the state’s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education produced an influential model for America and the rest of the world. Clark Kerr, then president of the University of California, became its chief architect, engineer and skillful shepherd in a role that earned this modest scholar national media attention.
(03 December)

Former UC President Clark Kerr, a national leader in higher education, dies at 92
Clark Kerr, a towering figure in higher education, died Monday, Dec. 1 at the age of 92. As president of the University of California, he was chief architect of the master plan that guided California public higher education for four decades and is still a national model.
(02 December)

Twain Project, English novel in India win MLA prizes
A book about colonialism, culture and the global development of the English novel in India, along with a collection of Mark Twain correspondence, are generating buzz for the University of California, Berkeley.
(02 December)

Bears, Hokies and the BOB: Time to order bowl tickets
It's official - Cal's football team has accepted an invitation to play in the Insight Bowl on Friday, Dec. 26, in Phoenix, Ariz. Cal (7-6) will meet the Virginia Tech Hokies (8-4) of the Big East conference. And now's the time to order tickets for Cal's first bowl appearance since 1996.
(02 December)

What makes volcanoes explode? It's the bubbles
Scientists have wondered for centuries what makes volcanoes explode rather than spew lava their entire lives. The current theory holds that breaking or fragmentation of the rising magma releases bubbles that blow the magma out like champagne from a bottle. Two UC Berkeley geophysicists propose a different theory - that explosions occur only when the release of gas as the magma rises does not keep up with the growth of bubbles.
(26 November)

Hotel, conference & museum complex adjoining campus advances
A vision to develop a hotel, conference, banking and museum complex on the edge of the University of California, Berkeley, campus and downtown Berkeley's new arts district got a boost Thursday as interested developers met with city and university officials.
(21 November)

The new Stanley: nowhere to go but up
A crowd of scientists, campus dignitaries, Berkeley alumni, and staff braved the rain on Friday, Nov. 14, to view the construction site where the Stanley Biosciences and Bioengineering Facility will begin to take shape, now that excavation for the facility has been completed. The California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3) hosted a reception that followed in Hearst Memorial Mining Building.
(20 November)

Budget tops list of issues at Senate meeting
At the fall meeting of the Berkeley Division of the UC Academic Senate, held in Sibley Auditorium last Thursday, one overarching message stood out: the sheer number of significant matters that the Senate and campus have put in motion to address an equally impressive number of challenges.
(20 November)

An admissions briefing for the media
Lead readers from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions did their thinking out loud last Wednesday, evaluating applications from six high-school seniors while members of the media looked on. The exercise came during a six-hour event at which campus officials sought to illuminate for journalists, and ultimately the public, the complex and difficult-to-understand process by which the campus selects a freshman class from among 37,000 applications.
(20 November)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community.
(20 November)

Big Game planners sweat the small stuff
This weekend’s 106th Big Game, on its face, holds elements of excitement — as the Bears travel into enemy territory to defend the Axe, with a bowl berth on the line. The rest depends on the big guys in the padded uniforms and the athletics staffs on either side — the former, who thrive on shock and awe, the latter whose business it is to orchestrate logistics and prevent disruptions.

(20 November)

Mark Twain: long gone, but still prolific

(19 November)

MLK Student Union gets a charge from student-funded solar power system
The University of California (ASUC) and Graduate Assembly (GA) have coughed up $50,000 each from their 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 budgets (and plan to give the same amount next year) to pay for the campus's first-ever solar-power system: 312 photovoltaic cells installed on the roof of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union. The system was turned on in late October and immediately began piping clean energy directly into the electrical grid of a building that is a notorious power hog.
(19 November)

Smallpox selected for genetic mutation that today confers resistance to HIV
In the 2,000 years before its eradication in 1978, smallpox killed as many as 30 percent of all children under 10. According to two UC Berkeley population geneticists, this high mortality rate selected for a genetic mutation that now appears in 10 percent of all Europeans, and coincidentally protects these people from HIV infection.
(18 November)

T.Y. Lin, world renowned structural engineer, dies at age 91
Tung-Yen Lin, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of civil engineering and a visionary whose pioneering work in prestressed concrete had a profound influence on the design of modern structures, has died. He was 91. Considered one of the greatest structural engineers of his time, Lin earned a reputation for combining elegance and strength in his designs.
(18 November)

Mantis shrimp fluoresce to enhance signaling in the dim ocean depths
Undersea creatures like coral and squid fluoresce in the dim blue light several hundred feet down, but most biologists thought this was nonfunctional -- a byproduct of their pigmentation. Marine biologist Roy Caldwell and others now show that mantis shrimp fluoresce to enhance their spots in the murky depths, both for recognition and to threaten other mantis shrimp.
(14 November)

Friendly rivalry in music and sport mark days leading up to UC Berkeley-Stanford "Big Game" on Nov. 22
Campus community members don’t have to wait until kick-off on Saturday, Nov. 22, for the games to begin. A week before, the two schools start squaring off in a variety of competitions, from organ recitals to Ultimate Frisbee to an a capella sing-off.
(14 November)

Chemistry professor James Cason has died at 91
James Cason, a professor emeritus of chemistry, died Nov. 3 after a short illness. He was 91.
(13 November)

From Bauer to Zarkin, outstanding staff get their due
On Monday, Nov. 3, before an audience of top administrators and their own peers, 31 individual UC Berkeley staff members and four team honorees received Out-standing Staff Awards at a ceremony at Alumni House.
(12 November)

Charitable Campaign benefits Berkeley
With the economy still in stutter-step mode, campus and community programs continue to feel the pinch. One way faculty and staff can help to make a difference is by donating to any campus program or local or national charity through the annual Campus Charitable Campaign.

(12 November)

An incentive to retire?
Faculty members considering retirement may find making that decision a bit easier this academic year, thanks to a recently developed, albeit modest, incentive program.
(12 November)

Richard Wollheim, professor emeritus and authority on art and psychoanalysis, dies
Richard Arthur Wollheim, a University of California, Berkeley professor emeritus of philosophy -- and an authority on psychoanalysis and art -- died of heart failure on Tuesday (Nov. 4) at his London home. He was 80.
(10 November)

Has Bush made us safer? Journalists debate U.S. security in the aftermath of the Iraq war
The question of whether President George W. Bush has made Americans safer hinges on whether the United States was justified in going to war with Saddam Hussein in the first place. That was one of the few points on which two respected journalists, Christopher Hitchens and Mark Danner, agreed in a heated debate Tuesday night. According to Hitchens, "neutralism and nonintervention were never options available to us," while Danner argued that the Bush administration launched the war with Iraq under false and misleading pretenses, and that the ongoing conflict is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
(05 November)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community.
(05 November)

"Dark matter" forms dense clumps in ghost universe
"Dark matter" in the cosmos forms a ghost universe invisible to astronomers, but that doesn't mean its evolution can't be studied. Theoretical astronomer Chung-Pei Ma has found that dark matter forms dense clumps that move much like dust motes dancing in a shaft of light.
(05 November)

Fighting invasives, one root ball at a time
Forays to the Richmond Field Station (RFS), Berkeley’s research and teaching outpost on San Francisco Bay, are part of a campus environmental-sciences teaching program. Under its aegis, students study ecological principles in the classroom, then apply them to field work, and — in some cases — capstone research projects.

(05 November)

Brown at 50: Rekindling the spirit
It’s been nearly half a century since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark 1954 decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which held that “separate education facilities are inherently unequal.” On Nov. 13 and 14, Boalt Hall’s Center for Social Justice will host “Rekindling the Spirit of Brown v. Board of Education,” a conference and “call to action” on the unfulfilled promise of equal education.
(05 November)

Trackin’ the vibes at Stanley

(05 November)

Federal, academic scientists partner to streamline environmental research
A new era of scientific collaboration for the benefit of the environment began on Oct. 28 as the Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) held its first planning meeting to set goals for the next five years.

(05 November)

Obituary: Sally Bellows
Sally Bellows, manager of student services for the School of Public Health (SPH), and a longtime member and leader of the Berkeley Staff Assembly (BSA), died on Wednesday, Oct. 22, at her home in Albany.
(05 November)

A bit of the West End in west campus
What God hath joined together no man shall put asunder; God will take care of that.” That’s but one of the observations on wedlock pronounced by the characters in George Bernard Shaw’s Getting Married, which begins a 10-day run at the campus’s Durham Studio Theater on Nov. 14.
(05 November)

UCTV has programs of campus interest to view in November
Keeping up with the rich, varied influx of speakers and events on the Berkeley campus can often feel overwhelming. The solution? Catch up on what you missed on UCTV, the University of California’s own television channel.
(05 November)

Nuclear physicist A. Carl Helmholz, former physics chair, has died
August Carl Helmholz, a professor emeritus of physics who employed cyclotrons and synchrotrons at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to understand elementary particle interactions, died Oct. 29 at his home in Lafayette, Calif. He was 88.
(04 November)

Scavengers benefit by dining with the wolves, find new UC Berkeley-led studies
Wolves really do wolf down their meals, but they typically can't finish off an entire carcass in one sitting. The result, according to two new studies led by researchers at UC Berkeley, is that a diverse range of scavengers get to pick off the leftovers while the wolves lie down to let their food digest. The research provides evidence of the beneficial role wolves play in the ecosystem, and supports the argument for the reintroduction of one of North America's top predators to Yellowstone National Park.
(04 November)

UC Berkeley responds to Regent Moores' report on admissions
An Oct. 29, 2003 paper written by UC Regent John Moores and his two research assistants continues to contain misleading data and draws incorrect conclusions about the UC Berkeley freshman admissions process.
(31 October)

Snowboarders do tricks, kids get treats on Halloween Eve
Halloween came a night early for about 200 children and the denizens of UC Berkeley's residence halls. Superheroes, pajama-clad babies, disco queens and one tiny bumblebee dragged bags of sweets from dorm room to dorm room as part of All Hall-O-Ween, a special event put on by the Residence Hall Assembly (RHA) for the students of Oakland's Markham Elementary school and their older and younger siblings.
(31 October)

Rain is more lethal for drivers after a long dry spell, says new study
The risk of an accident on a rainy day increases with the length of the dry spell preceding it, according to an analysis by a UC Berkeley researcher of more than one million fatal crashes. However, with each day the precipitation continued, the risk of an accident decreased.
(31 October)

Microbes can shorten shelf-life of non-incubated eggs in the wild, finds new study
Microbial infection has emerged as a culprit for why many birds start incubating eggs in a nest before the clutch is complete, which results in eggs hatching at different times. The practice puts younger chicks at a significant disadvantage and often leads to their death. A research team led by UC Berkeley scientists has found that incubation protects eggs from bacterial and fungal infection.
(30 October)

AAAS announces 2003 fellows, including six UC Berkeley faculty scientists
Berkeley - Six scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, were named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) today, bringing to 170 the total number of UC Berkeley faculty elected since 1982.
(30 October)

Accurate mapping of plant genome could lead to new generation of hybrid plants
Scientists at UC Berkeley and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., have accurately mapped the genes of the Arabidopsis plant, a mustard weed considered by biologists to be the equivalent of the fruit fly for genetics research. The research could lead to a new generation of genetically modified plants that can grow faster, produce more food and resist disease.
(30 October)

The proof is in the plotting

(29 October)

For four decades, EOP has sent students a message of support
EOP’s charge is to enroll, retain, and graduate low-income California residents who are the first in their families to attend college. The program works on a number of fronts to help freshmen and transfer students find their footing at Berkeley.
(29 October)

Retiree employment pilot program takes off
Where do campus hiring managers turn now that the Temporary Assistance Program (TAP) has ended? The UC Berkeley Retirement Center hopes to provide a partial solution to that quandary with the Retiree Return to Work Pilot Program that they co-developed with the Office of Human Resources/Employment Services.
(29 October)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley community
(29 October)

Realignment of functions will lead to a more effective campus
Chancellor Robert Berdahl last week announced changes in the campus’s administrative structure, the latest in a series of steps toward increased organizational effectiveness that have been a hallmark of his years in office.
(29 October)

Flares near our galaxy's central black hole indicate rapid spin
Flares in the very core of our Milky Way Galaxy hint at a spinning supermassive black hole at the center, according to new observations from ground-based telescopes equipped with razor-sharp adaptive optics.
(29 October)

UC Berkeley study assesses"second wave" of outsourcing U.S. jobs
A ferocious new wave of outsourcing of white-collar jobs is sweeping the United States, according to a new study published by University of California, Berkeley, researchers, who say the trend could leave as many as 14 million service jobs in the U.S. vulnerable.Study authors Ashok Deo Bardhan and Cynthia Kroll, both researchers at the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics housed at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, advise that not all of an estimated 14 million vulnerable jobs are likely to be lost. But, they note, jobs remaining in the United States could be subject to pressures to lower wages, and the jobs that leave may slow the nation's job growth or generate losses in related activities.
(29 October)

Federal, academic scientists partner to streamline environmental research
Nine University of California campuses, three California State University Campuses, and six federal agencies join expertise as the newly established California Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit holds its first planning meeting to set goals for the next five years.
(28 October)

Amount of new information doubled in last three years, UC Berkeley study finds
If you feel like you're experiencing information overload, a team of University of California, Berkeley, researchers have a good idea why.Worldwide information production has increased by 30 percent each year between 1999 and 2002, according to the team led by professors Peter Lyman and Hal Varian of the School of Information Management and Systems.
(28 October)

Roger Montgomery, former UC Berkeley dean, professor emeritus and architect, dies
Roger Montgomery, a former dean of the University of California, Berkeley's College of Environmental Design, an emeritus professor of both the architecture and city and regional planning departments, and a long-time champion of affordable housing, social equity and historic preservation, died Saturday (Oct. 25) at his Berkeley home. He was 78.
(27 October)

Toward a more effective campus
Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl has announced several changes in the campus’s administrative structure, aimed at making the campus a more effective organization. A Q&A explains what is changing, why it’s changing, and what it means for campus staff.
(27 October)

New briefs find relatively few hospitals providing bulk of charity health care in the state
California policy makers are debating whether non-profit hospitals deserve the tax breaks they get. A key element in this debate is the amount of charity health care these hospitals provide for the medically indigent and uninsured. But because the state provides no clear guidelines for what determines charity care, the dollar figures involved can vary 12-fold from $437 million to $5.3 billion in a single year, according to a series of three policy briefs released by the Nicholas C. Petris Center at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health.
(27 October)

Framing the issues: UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics
UC Berkeley linguistics and cognitive science professor George Lakoff has cofounded something very rare in the United States: a liberal think tank. In this interview he tells why the "Democrats just don't get it," why Schwartzenegger won the recall election, and how conservatives have successfully defined the issues for debate for the last 20 years.
(27 October)

Hollywood's Rob Reiner tells students he's keeping an eye on the governor's mansion
Actor-activist Rob Reiner visited a political science class on October 22, criticizing California voters for electing a governor with no experience while at the same time affirming his (qualified) support of Arnold Schwartzenegger. Reiner himself has been mentioned as a gubernatorial candidate, and may yet run for the office.
(23 October)

Frank Pitelka, professor emeritus of zoology who studied bird behavior, dies at age 87
Frank Alois Pitelka, a professor emeritus of zoology who contributed greatly to to Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, died Oct. 10 at the age of 87. For decades, he studied the ecology and behavior of shorebirds and other tundra animals in the Alaskan Arctic. He also won the campus's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1994.
(23 October)

Car sharing spurring fundamental travel changes, says UC Berkeley study
San Francisco Bay Area's City CarShare, a non-profit car sharing organization, is showing measurable impacts in reducing vehicular travel, individual transportation costs, private car ownership, and environmental hazards, according to a new University of California, Berkeley, report.
(23 October)

Peace Pole to be planted Friday in People's Park
Coinciding with United Nations Day, on Friday, Oct. 24, a Peace Pole will be installed Friday at 4:30 p.m. in People's Park in the Roots of Peace Garden. The garden is a collaboration between the Roots of Peace organization, which is donating the pole, UC Berkeley, and the People's Park Community Advisory Board.
(23 October)

All the news that fits, they print

(22 October)

News briefs
Sorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(22 October)

A quirky, comfortable chunk of Quercus

(22 October)

Campus recovers $40K for Strawberry Creek damages
For aquatic life in Strawberry Creek, March 22, 2002, EH&S plans to use funds reimbursed by negligent subcontractor for stream stewardship.
(22 October)

It’s Open Enrollment season again for faculty and staff

(22 October)

Open Enrollment presentations for active faculty and staff employees
Schedule of Open Enrollment presentations for active faculty and staff employees
(22 October)

‘Weirdly optimistic’: Michael Moore at the Greek
Academy Award-winning documentarian and all-around progressive gadfly Michael Moore greeted a sold-out, manifestly liberal Greek Theatre audience on Saturday.
(22 October)

Chancellor’s staff address is met with frustration, skepticism by some
The chancellor’s annual address to campus staff, organized by the Berkeley Staff Assembly, is typically no lovefest. In recent years, questions addressed to Chancellor Berdahl have touched, pointedly at times, on such topics as faculty/ staff relations, budget constraints, increased workloads, and salary increases (or the lack thereof).

(22 October)

Colorado cave yields million-year-old record of evolution and climate change
Pack rat middens in Colorado's Porcupine Cave contain a 400,000-year record of vole populations going back a million years, providing paleontologists with an unprecedented picture of how climate change affects mammal evolution.
(21 October)

Professors follow pundits with research on recall's effects
After political strategists, pollsters and journalists assembled at UC Berkeley on Saturday to analyze the California gubernatorial recall, professors from across the state met to map out their own strategies for dissecting the election and discerning lessons to be learned from it.
(20 October)

Sniff and smell are equally important in the brain's perception of odor
Imagine the smell of coffee in the morning. Did you close your eyes and inhale deeply through your nose? Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, found that most people do. In the Oct. 19, online issue of Nature: Neuroscience, in the article, "Olfactomotor Activity During Imagery Mimics That During Perception," the researchers explain how they arrived at this conclusion, and detail other findings of their research.
(20 October)

Biotech panel marks 50th anniversary of DNA double helix discovery
The pioneers and major players of biotech gathered at Berkeley to contemplate the past and future path of the industry. Story includes four video clips.
(16 October)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community.
(16 October)

Dangerous herbal readily available through Web despite FDA import ban
UC Berkeley researcher Lois Swirsky Gold warns of an herbal product - Aristolochia - that has been banned by the FDA yet still is readily available through the Internet. It has been shown to cause rapid kidney failure and cancer of the urinary tract. Though herbal supplements are not regulated in this country, Gold urges the FDA to come up with a way to regulate Internet sales of herbals known to be dangerous.
(16 October)

Work/life policies and programs are of keen concern on campus
Congress proclaimed October National Work and Family Month. How is that relevant for people who work on campus? Here at Berkeley, it’s long been acknowledged that for faculty and staff to stay productive, they need support to balance the demands of work and family.

(16 October)

Publications
Recent publications by campus faculty.
(16 October)

Radar and Fine Wine: Innovative research uses radar to map soil moisture, create better wine grapes
Soil moisture is key to growing quality wine grapes, but accurately monitoring the soil's water content is a difficult and expensive task. Now, innovative research led by UC Berkeley scientists is lending a high-tech hand to the fine art of grape growing with the use of ground penetrating radar to monitor soil moisture.
(16 October)

How to get a new department chair
If your ergonomic needs have put you in the market for new piece of furniture, visit the Ergonomics Showroom, recently relocated to the Tang Center. You can try out a new chair, keyboard tray, or computer table with the help of an expert.

(15 October)

The builders of Berkeley
The generosity of private donors has been central to the success of the University of California since its founding in 1868.
(15 October)

NSF awards $5.46 million to UC Berkeley and USC to build testbed for cyber war games
Cyber war games will soon begin, and the players will be researchers seeking to protect networks from computer attacks. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California are teaming up to build a large-scale cybersecurity testbed for the development of new defenses against computer worms and viruses. Through the project, funded by a $5.46 million NSF grant, researchers will put cyberdefense technologies to the test by unleashing malicious codes onto the network.
(15 October)

Charles Wilke, co-founder of UC Berkeley's Department of Chemical Engineering, dies at age 86
Charles R. Wilke, one of the founders of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a pioneer in the field of biochemical engineering, died on Oct. 2 at his home in El Cerrito.
(14 October)

Nobelist James Watson headlines Berkeley symposium on DNA and biotech
Nobel Laureate James Watson and a who's who of scientists and biotech pioneers gathered at Berkeley to review what we've learned and where science is heading 50 years after the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.
(13 October)

U.S. has higher birth, marriage rates than Western Europe, despite lack of family-friendly policies
Despite the United States having some of the least generous family policies, birth rates are higher in the United States than the rest of the western world. In addition, the U.S. Government is putting money into promoting marriage, yet the marriage rate in the U.S. is higher than any other industrialized nation.
(13 October)

Major decisions: Look before you leap on an academic path
Nail down "Where are you going to college?" and almost immediately you face "What's your major?" Despite the pressure to think otherwise, you don't need to have an answer right away. In fact, Berkeley student advisers encourage you to spend a few semesters window-shopping before declaring a major. It may mean resisting peer and parental prodding, but as many students confirm, you'll likely be happier in your university niche.
(13 October)

Recall news focused primarily on Schwarzenegger's campaign
California's Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger benefited from lopsided media attention during the pivotal first weeks of his campaign, according to a study by a policy research center at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University."Californians were bombarded with messages about Schwarzenegger's candidacy, cast in a positive or negative light, for most of the campaign," said Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor of education and public policy who headed the study. "Soon thereafter, his (Schwarzenegger's) support rose from 20 percent to over 40 percent of those polled."
(13 October)

Awards
Awards honoring members of the campus community
(08 October)

Accreditation team set to visit Berkeley
For the past several years, the campus has been turning a mirror on itself in preparation for a once-a-decade renewal of its institutional accreditation.
(08 October)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(08 October)

Campus responds to L.A. Times reporting
A story that appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, Oct. 4, grossly mischaracterized some results of Berkeley’s 2002 admissions process, campus officials said this week.
(08 October)

The 7th annual spoonbill migration
A flock of about 150 black-faced spoonbills will arrive just outside the University of California, Berkeley's Kroeber Hall on Thursday (Oct. 9). They are the creation of environmental design students interested in the fate of the endangered bird that winters in Taiwanese wetlands.
(07 October)

Scholars from around the world heading to UC Berkeley to discuss the history of children and issues facing them
Scholars from around the world will present recent research findings on a new subject — the history of children — at an upcoming conference at the University of California, Berkeley, in an effort to move children onto a broad academic and social agenda.The conference, Childhood: A World History, to be held Oct. 10-11, will take up topics ranging from infant mortality and puberty to toys and the representation of children in art. It is free and open to the public.
(07 October)

Homecoming Week at Cal: everything from an ice cream social to a panel of '60s activists
For the first time since 1964, a campus-wide Student Homecoming was held at Cal. Activities ranged from a Homecoming banner competition to a battle of the brains between students and faculty.
(06 October)

Energy and resources professor and former UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Mark Christensen has died
Mark Christensen, who helped facilitate the establishment of Berkeley's Energy & Resources Group 30 years ago, died Oct. 2 at the age of 73. The second Chancellor of UC Santa Cruz for a brief time in the 1970s, Christensen retired in 1994 and was living in Carmel.
(03 October)

New treatment for Sudden Oak Death approved based upon research by UC Berkeley plant pathologist
On Oct. 1, state regulators opened the door for a new treatment for Sudden Oak Death to be used on oaks and tanoaks in California. The decision was made based upon research by Matteo Garbelotto, adjunct assistant professor of ecosystem sciences and cooperative extension specialist at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources. It is the first and only treatment approved by the state for use against a pathogen that has killed tens of thousands of coastal oak trees from California's Big Sur to the border of Oregon.
(02 October)

The Class of ’68 takes a look back

(01 October)

Fall Arts Fest expands its reach
Building on last year’s success, the second annual Fall Arts Fest will be held Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Berkeley Art Museum.
(01 October)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community.
(01 October)

‘Wurster Redux’ celebrates CED milestones
With its homecoming to a newly renovated Wurster Hall, the architecture department turning 100, and six other college milestones to toast, the College of Environmental (CED) has much to celebrate. And celebrate it will Oct. 9-12, with a flurry of events flying under the title “Wurster Redux.”
(01 October)

Chancellor says he’ll step down next June
Robert M. Berdahl, the eighth chancellor of the Berkeley campus, announced on Sept. 25 that he will step down in June 2004.
(01 October)

‘We need to keep going full speed ahead’
On Monday, Chancellor Robert Berdahl was interviewed by Berkeleyan Editor Jonathan King about the work he’s completed during his tenure, and what priorities remain to be addressed during his final months in office.
(01 October)

Nobelist James Watson headlines celebration of DNA & biotech
A half century ago, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the true structure of DNA, the famed double helix. That discovery unleashed biologists and led, less than 25 years later, to the discovery of a way to stitch genes together - the basis of the biotechnology industry. With numerous biotech drugs and therapies now on the market, biotech founders and Nobelists, including Watson, are gathering Oct. 11 to celebrate the 50th anniversary and look to what the future promises.
(30 September)

Maria Bailey and daughter Vanessa are taking on UC Berkeley together
Spend ten minutes or so with Maria and Vanessa Bailey, and you realize that they're more than just mother and daughter — they're a fiercely loyal, supportive team of two. They share housing, a car, a laptop, and a longtime dream that's finally turned into reality. They both became UC Berkeley students this fall.
(29 September)

"Starving the government": Economist Paul Krugman argues what the Bush administration's tax cuts and foreign policy have in common
The Bush administration's tax cuts and the Iraq war are part of a pattern of misrepresentation by the government that deserves to be called dishonesty, said noted economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Krugman lectured on "The War in Iraq and the American Economy" before a packed auditorium at the Haas School of Business, but his real topic was a right-wing agenda that has the unfortunate effect of making him feel like a "paranoid conspiracy theorist."
(26 September)

Haste Street closed September 29-October 7
Haste Street between College Avenue and Bowditch Street is scheduled to be closed to vehicle traffic from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays only from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7. The closure is needed to deliver and install granular fill material for the construction project underway at Unit 2.
(26 September)

Pioneering vision researcher Russell De Valois has died at 76
Russell De Valois, a professor of psychology and vision science, died Sept. 20 after an automobile accident in Wyoming. The 76-year-old De Valois made seminal contributions to the theories of color and spatial vision, and was still active in research and writing.
(25 September)

UC Berkeley extends public comment period on land use plan
The University of California, Berkeley, has announced a 10-day extension of the public comment period for the Notice of Preparation of the new Long Range Development Plan. The comment period will now end on Oct. 10. Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl approved the extension today (Thursday, Sept. 25) following recent requests from Berkeley city officials and members of the community who felt they needed additional time to review the documents.
(25 September)

The Berdahl years: A chronology
A timeline of Robert M. Berdahl’s years as chancellor of UC Berkeley
(25 September)

UC Berkeley chancellor announces he'll step down in June 2004
UC Berkeley's eighth chancellor, Robert M. Berdahl, said today that he will step down from his post in June 2004 after seven years on campus. Berdahl, 66, called his time as UC Berkeley's chancellor "the greatest privilege and honor of my life." UC President Richard Atkinson lauded Berdahl, who will take a year's sabbatical and then return to campus to teach and continue scholarly work, as "an eloquent and outstanding leader for the Berkeley campus and will be greatly missed."
(25 September)

Computer model clears up immunological conundrum
In a perfect example of the merger of theoretical and experimental biology, a UC Berkeley chemist and chemical engineer has helped clear up confusion over a potentially important part of the body's immune response -- how viruses and cancer cells trigger a T cell attack.
(25 September)

Home-treated water no better than plain tap in preventing gastrointestinal illness, finds new study
A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, should make some people feel better about the next cool glass of tap water they get at home. A year-long randomized study found that, in homes served by well-run water districts, an in-home water treatment device provided no additional protection from gastrointestinal illness.
(25 September)

Community shares ideas, concerns on long-range campus plans
More than 125 Berkeley residents came together Sept. 22 to share their thoughts, concerns and suggestions on the long-range growth and development of the University of California, Berkeley.
(24 September)

Berkeley students to hold their first campus-wide homecoming since 1964
For the first time in 39 years, students at the University of California, Berkeley, will hold a campus-wide homecoming. The tradition, which was celebrated at UC Berkeley as far back as 1923, died out in the turbulent, highly political atmosphere of the mid-1960s.
(24 September)

Photography students take a look at the city

(24 September)

Identity Resources website offers guidelines for designers and editors
A new website will offers design and editorial guidelines for campus communications.

(24 September)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(24 September)

Long-serving campus staffers honored
On Tuesday, Sept. 16, more than 300 Berkeley employees with between 10 and 40 years of service to the campus were honored at a luncheon in Pauley Ballroom sponsored by Chancellor Berdahl and the Office of Human Resources (OHR). This is the third year the event has been held.

(24 September)

They may not win...
Like most debates among candidates for any prestigious political office, the Sept. 15 campus forum featured gubernatorial hopefuls articulating their differing positions on fiscal issues, social policy, and campaign reform. But at this particular debate, hosted by Berkeley’s Center on Politics, something seemed a little different.

(24 September)

Homecoming gets even livelier
Student Homecoming 2003 is the first campuswide student homecoming since 1964.
(24 September)

Undergrads prosper on the Potomac

(24 September)

Professor emeritus Patrick Wilson, librarian and philosopher, dies at 75
Patrick G. Wilson, emeritus professor in the University of California, Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems and former dean, died of heart failure in San Francisco on Monday, Sept. 12. He was 75.
(24 September)

Regents review 2004-05 budget options
With the state of California still facing an $8-billion budget deficit, the UC Board of Regents has begun preliminary discussions regarding the possibility of further budget cutting in the 2004-05 fiscal year.
(24 September)

Homeland Security names Berkeley students to fellows and scholars program
Six University of California, Berkeley, students are among 101 students across the nation who were named this week to the new Homeland Security Scholars and Fellows Program at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Science and Technology. Thirteen of the fellows and scholars hailed from California.
(23 September)

Theater professor stages adaptation of J.M. Coetzee's "Foe"
Peter Glazer is gearing up for the University of California, Berkeley, stage premiere of his adaptation of South African author J.M. Coetzee's 1986 takeoff on the classic, "Robinson Crusoe." A veteran stage manager, director, playwright - and a professor at UC Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies - Glazer has Coetzee's blessings to present his theatrical version of the novel, "Foe," at the campus's Zellerbach Playhouse Oct. 3-19.
(19 September)

Four young scientists lauded by national magazines
This month, two popular science magazines, Technology Review and Popular Science, published lists of the world's top scientists and innovators. Four were from UC Berkeley, working in areas ranging from nanotechnology to planetary science. And they're all 35 or under.
(19 September)

UC/Cal State project promotes using waste heat from power generation to heat and cool buildings
The Department of Energy has chosen UC Berkeley as the lead partner in a Southwest regional center to encourage the use of "combined heat and power" systems, which capture waste heat from electricity generation to heat and cool buildings. The UC/Cal State collaboration will help businesses assess the feasibility of these small-scale systems and encourage installation.
(18 September)

Save the Dirt: Researchers find pristine soils losing out to farming and development
A new UC Berkeley study may cause some people to rethink the phrase, "common as dirt." In a paper published in the current issue of the journal Ecosystems, researchers find that pristine soils are becoming increasingly rare, with some at risk of becoming extinct.
(18 September)

New center to improve technology-enhanced teaching and learning of science
Science education does not yet take full advantage of modern technology, says Marcia Linn, a University of California, Berkeley, education professor. But as principal investigator of the new Technology-Enhanced Learning in Science center, she hopes that's about to change. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $10 million for the center, which is designed to bring together teachers, students, researchers, policy-makers and high-tech designers from Berkeley to Boston to study how instructional technology can improve science education in grades 6 through 12. It also will create classroom-tested technological tools to be woven into science teaching.
(18 September)

Vice Provost Christina Maslach tackles the mystery of fostering faculty-student interaction
In a survey of students last spring, 80 percent of graduating seniors said they thought it was important to work on research with a faculty mentor. However, less than half of them reported actually having done so. As Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Christina Maslach has made improving faculty-student interaction a major mission, and as a professor of psychology, she's asking students to explore the issue through a Freshman Seminar called "Getting to Know the UCB Faculty."
(18 September)

A Greek tragedy graces the Greek
This weekend, Cal Performances celebrates the Hearst Greek Theatre’s centennial with two presentations of Euripides’ Medea, performed by the National Theatre of Greece in modern Greek, with English supertitles. The performances, which mark the American premiere of this acclaimed production, will be Saturday, Sept. 20, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m.
(17 September)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(17 September)

Activist Dolores Huerta appointed to UC Board of Regents
In the wake of her appointment to the UC Board of Regents last week, United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta said Monday that diversity — not only among UC students but also among faculty and administrative staff — will be one of her top concerns as regent.Huerta, 73, will fill out the remainder of the term of Norman Pattiz, which expires March 1.

(17 September)

Annual ceremony to honor the past year’s deceased has become a new campus tradition
A year ago this month, Cal paused for one hour to honor members of the campus community who had died during the preceding year. Now, in what is a new tradition, family, friends, and colleagues of the recently deceased will gather on the west side of California Hall from 12:10 to 12:50 p.m. on Tues., Sept. 23, for the annual campuswide memorial.
(17 September)

Students initiate effort to combat harassment and hate on campus
On Wednesday, Sept. 10, Chancellor Robert Berdahl formally commissioned a joint student-administration task force to recommend actions that the campus can take to combat incidents driven by racial, ethnic, religious, and gender hatred and intolerance.

(17 September)

Economic stress in Germany linked to decline in male births
Those trying to guess a baby's gender can forget about the lunar cycle at the time of conception and other myths. A new study by a UC Berkeley researcher finds that a country's dramatic, faltering economy may be a powerful determinant in the number of boys that are born. An analysis of half a century of birth records in East Germany revealed a significant drop in male births in 1991. At the time, the country was reeling from the collapse of Communism and the transition to a new economy.
(16 September)

UC Berkeley chancellor to announce university/community partnership awards
Chancellor Berdahl and his wife, Peg Berdahl, will present awards this Thursday to eight innovative programs that represent exemplary partnerships between UC Berkeley and northern California community groups.
(16 September)

Court decision to delay recall election justified by concern over punch card ballots, expert says
"Punch cards throw away votes," says UC Berkeley professor Henry Brady, reacting to a federal court of appeals ruling that California's Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election should not proceed until the entire state had replaced punch cards with modern voting systems.
(15 September)

Conference probes environmental impact of federal water policy
More than a decade after Congress passed a landmark refom to the way federal water projects in California are managed, experts from government, academia and industry gathered at a UC Berkeley-sponsored conference to assess the law's effects.
(15 September)

Korean satellite to measure galaxy's UV glow
An inexpensive experiment to measure the Milky Way's ultraviolet glow will rocket into orbit Sept. 26 aboard South Korea's first scientific satellite. The experiment is a collaboration between Korean and UC Berkeley scientists, and will complete the first all-sky survey of the far ultraviolet light given off by warm interstellar gas.
(15 September)

"More federal grant dollars": Berkeley administrator defends student financial aid before Congressional committee
Richard Black, UC Berkeley's Assistant Vice Chancellor for Admissions and Enrollment, testified today before the Congressional Advisory Committee on Student Financial Aid in defense of four-year Pell grants. Berkeley has more Pell grant recipients than any other campus than UCLA.
(11 September)

Using packed silver nanowires as sensitive explosives detector
Tiny wires no wider than a virus are hard to manipulate, but chemist Peidong Yang has found a way to pack trillions of these nanowires together to form a large surface ideal for chemical sensing. To demonstrate the possibilities, he built a sensitive explosives detector.
(11 September)

UC Berkeley's Greek Theatre turns 100 years old this month
The Greek Theatre is 100 years old. Through the years, it has seen numerous commencement convocations, as well as productions by famous actors and actresses. The school is commemorating the anniversary with a production of Medea.
(11 September)

Bancroft Library adds photo archives of Michelle Vignes
The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, has acquired the archives of photographer Michelle Vignes, who documented Native Americans' 1969-71 occupation of Alcatraz Island, the American Indian Movement and other major social movements of the last half-century. From the American Indian Movement, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Altamont rock concert, and the "Human Be-In" in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, Vignes has been on hand to photograph it. She also documented Vietnam War protesters burning draft cards, recorded daily life in Mexican pueblos, shot a series on Oakland's vibrant blues scene, and even spent time snapping the shutter at a truck stop.
(11 September)

Donald Dahlsten, leading expert in biological control and forest entomology, dies at 69
Donald Lee Dahlsten, a professor of insect biology at the University of California, Berkeley, whose work in biological control gave California officials a powerful weapon in their fight against a fast-spreading tree pest, died Wednesday, Sept. 3. He was 69. Over the course of his 40-year career, Dahlsten developed a reputation as one of the world's most respected leaders in biological control, a field that had gained momentum in the 1960s as an alternative to the increasingly ineffective use of chemical pesticides.
(10 September)

Retired professor Jesse Rabinowitz dies at 78
Biochemist Jesse Rabinowitz, an expert on folic acid and an avid photographer, has died at the age of 78.
(10 September)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community.
(10 September)

UC Berkeley project focuses on information technology, homeland security
A new project at the University of California, Berkeley, is assembling leading scholars and scientists to explore information technology and homeland security. The group first will examine how technology can better assess and mitigate risk for vulnerable ports and financial systems. The Information Technology and Homeland Security Project - based at the campus's Goldman School of Public Policy and the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE) - is kicking off with "Managing the Unbounded Risk," a Sept. 18-19 conference.
(10 September)

Campus opticians to provide free vision screening for primary-school students
This fall, several white vans, each loaded with two professors, four graduate students, and crates of equipment, will begin rolling out of the School of Optometry on their way to elementary schools in the city of Berkeley, to begin a sweeping vision screening of the district’s children — including all kindergarteners, second-graders, and fifth-graders.

(10 September)

Special ‘budget edition’ of Bear in Mind now on web

(10 September)

ETS launches new Multimedia Services team
This fall, Educational Technology Services (ETS) will launch a new Multimedia Services team to provide centralized multimedia services to the Berkeley campus. The team will be run by ETS professionals and staffed by students.
(10 September)

Pacific Film Archive to screen French feminist’s works

(10 September)

UC Berkeley survey finds business support for health insurance reform
California employers generally support health insurance reform, and reform costs would be modest for most businesses, according to results of a survey released today by researchers at the Institute for Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley. Their report comes as the state Legislature considers action on proposed health insurance reform in the form of Senate Bill 2. The bill emerged from a conference committee on Tuesday and will be voted on by the Senate and Assembly before the two adjourn on Friday.
(10 September)

Vice Provost Webster to retire at year’s end
William Webster, the campus’s first vice provost for academic planning and facilities, has announced his retirement, effective December 31, after 34 years of service to UC Berkeley.
(10 September)

Student-initiated effort will combat harassment and hate
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl today (Wednesday, Sept.10) formally commissioned a joint student-administration task force to recommend actions that the campus can take to combat incidents driven by racial, ethnic, religious and gender hatred and intolerance.
(10 September)

The Academic Senate’s mysterious little men

(10 September)

Physicist Frank Crawford, who worked on bubble chambers, supernovas and adaptive optics, has died at 79
Frank Crawford may have been the only member of the physics department ever to hold a Telegraph Ave. vendor's license. In the 1970s, he could be seen on the street playing and selling the "corrugahorn" he invented, but during his long career at UC Berkeley and LBNL he contributed to many areas of physics. He died this summer at the age of 79.
(10 September)

Recall election sparks campus registration drive for more voters
Next month, Californians get another crack at choosing the state's chief executive, plus a chance to weigh in on the hot topics of spending and race. UC Berkeley leaders are working hard to ensure that the voices of Cal students, faculty and staff will be heard in this historic vote.
(04 September)

Renowned UC Berkeley professor and philosopher Donald Davidson dies at 86
Renowned philosopher Donald Herbert Davidson, University of California, Berkeley, Willis S. and Marion Slusser professor emeritus of philosophy, died on August 30, 2003. He was 86 years old.Davidson was recognized as one of the most influential philosophers of his generation.
(04 September)

Berkeley students have style — you just have to look closely
To the rest of the world, "UC Berkeley student" might still conjure up images of bell-bottoms and peace signs. But the times, they have a'changed. These days you're much more likely to see camouflage tank tops than tie-dyed around Sproul Plaza, and while flared jeans are back in fashion, flip-flops outnumber Birkenstocks by five to one.
(04 September)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(03 September)

What will Prop. 54 do?
The Racial Privacy Initiative on California’s October ballot will hamper public-health efforts, present a mixed bag for education, and reduce accountability for some crimes, according to graduate-student researchers at the Goldman School of Public Policy. But contrary to the assertions of many of its proponents, they say, it isn’t likely to produce a colorblind society.
(03 September)

LRDP: Crafting a guiding vision
Professor Bill Webster, vice provost for academic planning, and Ed Denton, vice chancellor for capital projects, recently sat down with the Berkeleyan to discuss the new Long Range Development Plan. Work on the plan officially launched this month and will undergo review and revisions in the coming months.
(03 September)

LRDP process starts with public input
If you could help shape the look, feel, and academic strength of UC Berkeley for the next 15 years, how would you do it? That, essentially, is the question before campus leaders as they begin to design a Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) that will guide the growth and development of the campus from 2005 through the year 2020.
(03 September)

Dr. Frank Falkner, world-renowned child growth expert, dies at 84
Dr. Frank T. Falkner, professor emeritus and former chair of maternal and child health at UC Berkeley, and an internationally recognized leader in the field of pediatric growth and development, has died at age 84. Falkner, who had prostate cancer, died in his sleep at his Berkeley home on Thursday, Aug. 21. Known by his friends and colleagues as a Renaissance Man and a consummate gentleman, Falkner left an imprint in fields as disparate as child health research and professional auto racing.
(03 September)

RHESSI satellite offers clues about how solar explosions act as particle accelerators
UC Berkeley's RHESSI satellite was launched in Feburary 2002 to obtain X-ray & gamma-ray pictures of solar flares in an attempt to understand these huge explosions. It's first gamma-ray image, from July 2002, showed scientists they don't know as much as they thought they did about the production of high-energy X-rays and gamma rays from flares.
(02 September)

Three of a kind in the freshman class: triplets enter UC Berkeley
The Mireles triplets, two of whom are identical, arrived at UC Berkeley for the fall term. They are from the Central Valley, and they are the first in their family to attend college. They worked with their parents to find the resources to make their academic dream come true.
(02 September)

Public comments sought for Long Range Development Plan
The University of California, Berkeley, is drafting a new land use plan that will help shape the look, feel and academic direction of the campus for the next 15 years. The campus's current Long Range Development Plan runs through 2005 and will be replaced with a new plan that will direct UC Berkeley's growth and development from 2005 to 2020.
(02 September)

Professor emeritus and mechanics of collision expert Werner Goldsmith dies at 79
Werner Goldsmith, professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, an international authority on the mechanics of collision, and a pioneer in the biomechanics of head and neck trauma, has died.
(29 August)

Balancing Earth's hydrogen budget
Scientists think they know all sources and sinks for hydrogen gas on Earth, from fossil fuel burning to soil microbes, but the numbers don't balance. Two different methods of measuring hydrogen give different answers. A new measurement of hydrogen isotopes in stratospheric air finally resolves the conflict and balances the Earth's hydrogen budget. This will help in assessing the impact of hydrogen leaking into the atmosphere if we move to a hydrogen fuel economy.
(28 August)

New profs take careful notes at orientation
Approximately 60 of the 80 newly hired faculty members from departments across campus attended an orientation meeting for new faculty, organized jointly by the Academic Senate and the Office of the Vice Provost for
(27 August)

If a tree falls on the campus, will anyone replace it?

(27 August)

It’s tempting to label IGS website ‘Total Recall’
There’s no shortage of things to read about the upcoming recall election, certainly. But it’s hard to find what’s truly useful among the daily torrent of hand-wringing op-eds and celebrity puff pieces. Fortunately, the librarians at the Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) have waded through all that sludge to find the worthwhile resources that are in fact out there.
(27 August)

News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community
(27 August)

Shaggy doggerel, pilfered art: It’s Lunch Poems
The annual kickoff reading of Lunch Poems has become a popular Berkeley tradition.
(27 August)

Nanometer-sized particles change crystal structure when wet
As scientists shrink materials to a few nanometers across, they're finding that the surface plays a much larger role in the solid's physical properties. Now UC Berkeley scientists have found that molecules binding to the surface can drastically alter the internal structure. This has implications for the design of nanodevices, but also for how we interpret nanoparticles found in extraterrestrial rocks.
(27 August)

Anthropology professor John Ogbu dies at age 64
John Uzo Ogbu, professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a path-breaking scholar in the fields of minority education and identity, died of a heart attack after undergoing back surgery on Wednesday (Aug. 20).
(26 August)

Science and art in "Gene(sis)" exhibition
The San Francisco Bay Area is home to dozens of biotechnology firms delving into the cutting edge of genetic research, and it's home to artists and scholars exploring the ramifications of contemporary tinkering with Mother Nature. Starting Wednesday, Aug. 27, the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) will host what's considered the first art exhibition devoted to genomics that takes a comprehensive and scholarly approach.
(22 August)

UC Berkeley campus coming alive again for fall term
From parties and receptions to the more mundane tasks of unpacking boxes and buying books, students are settling in at UC Berkeley for the fall term. In a Back to School package, the NewsCenter takes a look at who these tens of thousands of scholars are, what they're studying, what they're paying, and other tidbits of interest.
(21 August)

Students urge reuse over recycling, plan giveaway of used readers and notebooks
UC Berkeley students have declared a war on waste. They are working to go beyond recycling to resource reduction and reuse. One student rides around campus on a mountain bike pulling an eight-foot trailer to haul away reusable paper and office supplies which are available for those who need them. Others give out mugs and organize back to school events to encourage reuse.
(21 August)

Academic-freedom policy revisited
UC faculty endorsed a new policy on academic freedom at a meeting of the systemwide Academic Assembly held at Berkeley July 30.
(20 August)

Nurturing the undergrad experience
The 18,300 undergraduates in the College of Letters & Science (L&S) have a dedicated advocate in newly appointed Dean Robert Holub. Appointed Undergraduate Division dean effective July 1, Holub is continuing the efforts of outgoing Dean Kwong-loi Shun while hoping to advance new initiatives as well.
(20 August)

Sexual-harassment training options increase
The campus is expanding its training programs this fall and making it clear that all faculty, administrators, and staff have the twin responsibilities of becoming knowledgeable about sexual harassment and understanding how to respond appropriately if such situations arise.
(20 August)

Despite dark financial clouds, 2003-04 school year "off to a great start," says Berdahl
With an entering class as strong as any in campus history, the 2003-04 school year is off to a good start, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl said during his annual start of the school year press conference.
(20 August)

A fond adieu to one of our own
D. Lyn Hunter, a Public Affairs staff member for more than a decade, has moved up the hill to the Office of Planning and Communication at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
(20 August)

Smooth eTraveling ahead

(20 August)

Students warned of copyright issues, possible subpoenas, as file sharing enforcement increases
UC Berkeley is stepping up education and enforcement efforts regarding the uploading and downloading of music, videos and software through the Internet.
(20 August)

UC Berkeley expands its sexual harassment prevention and training
The University of California, Berkeley is initiating several new measures to strengthen existing sexual harassment policies and training procedures.
(19 August)

Berkeley publishes draft SARS response plan
The UC Berkeley SARS task force has created a prevention and response plan to help the campus – and other institutions – cope with the advent of public health threats like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The plan, published in draft form on the Web, is open for public comment.
(19 August)

Young Musicians Program: Prodigal parade of talent onstage at Berkeley
For 36 years now, Berkeley's Young Musicians Program has provided full scholarships to exceptionally gifted, underprivileged Bay Area children.
(14 August)

Letter from Chancellor Berdahl to the UC Berkeley community
Chancellor Robert Berdahl takes a look back at the past year and looks ahead. On the heels of a very good year, Berdahl worries about the fragile future of public higher education.
(13 August)

Bancroft’s Images of Native Americans online exhibit honored

(13 August)

Mark Twain Letters go online
Author Samuel Langhorne Clemens may have been only as high-tech as the typewriter, but the University of California, Berkeley's Mark Twain Project is taking him into the 21st century by electronically publishing the Mark Twain Letters.
(11 August)

Switch problems disrupt campus voice mail
The UC Berkeley campus is experiencing problems at the interface between SBC (Pacific Bell) and the campus voice mail system that are preventing normal voice mail operation. Computer and Network Services staff expect to have the problem repaired by 10 a.m.; in the meantime, there are workarounds to allow callers to leave and retrieve voice mail.
(08 August)

UC Berkeley to begin layoffs necessitated by state budget cuts
With the state budget finalized, UC Berkeley will begin implementing some employee layoffs as part of an overall strategy to meet an estimated $25.5 million cut in state funding for fiscal year 2003-04. Although executive vice chancellor and provost Paul Gray called layoffs "a last resort," he added that "the magnitude of the shortfall we face makes these actions necessary."
(06 August)

Professor Emeritus Kenneth Weisinger dies at age 60 after battle with cancer
Kenneth Dean Weisinger, director of the University of California, Berkeley, campus Education Abroad Program and professor emeritus of German and comparative literature, died at his San Francisco home on Monday (July 28) after battling cancer for the past year. He was 60.
(05 August)

Museum scientists to repeat 80-year-old Yosemite wildlife survey
Almost 90 years ago, pioneering ecologist Joseph Grinnell led a team of biologists from Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in a survey of the wildlife in Yosemite National Park. Now the park has asked the museum to conduct a similar survey, the first since Grinnell's original studies between 1914 and 1920.
(05 August)

Study finds new evidence that vitamin C helps reduce oxidative stress in passive smokers
A new study led by researchers at UC Berkeley has found that vitamin C effectively reduced levels of oxidative stress in people exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. Oxidative stress is associated with a variety of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and atherosclerosis. The findings provide encouraging news for people who cannot escape secondhand smoke, said the researchers.
(05 August)

Regional Oral History Office turns up the volume for hidden voices
Collecting oral histories is about more than sitting down with one of history's bigwigs and turning the tape recorder on. Unlike written records, oral histories give voice to the bit players and communities around significant events. The Bancroft Library's Regional Oral History Office has a mission to preserve Californians' stories, and its new director wants students to be a part of that.
(05 August)

Campus IT teams patching Windows security flaw
A flaw in the Microsoft Windows operating system has left UC Berkeley IT security teams scrambling to patch thousands of PCs before online vandals can compromise them. They may need to shut down some network ports temporarily to ward off the intruders.
(04 August)

UC Berkeley arborist launches new Tree Fund to encourage campus planting
When a dead or damaged tree is removed from campus, does anyone notice? Arborist Richard Trout does. Frustrated by a lack of funds to replace trees lost to disease or the weather, he is launching a tree fund to raise money to remedy the situation.
(04 August)

A breakfast of meat and eggs or nothing at all linked to extra weight, finds new study
A new study led by researchers at UC Berkeley has found that vitamin C effectively reduced levels of oxidative stress in people exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. Oxidative stress is associated with a variety of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and atherosclerosis. The findings provide encouraging news for people who cannot escape secondhand smoke, said the researchers.
(01 August)

Laguna campus closing, but UC Extension plans to continue offering S.F. classes
UC Berkeley Extension is moving forward with plans to close its Laguna Street campus in San Francisco but anticipates that popular classes will continue to be offered in that city.
(31 July)

UC Berkeley faces $25.5 million in cuts under new state budget
UC Berkeley officials said that the new state budget will require them to cut campus spending by an estimated $25.5 million, but that nothing will be done to jeopardize the campus’s tradition of academic excellence. They also said that because the campus has been diligently preparing for deep cuts for months, the final budget numbers won't require them to make major spending reductions beyond those that had already been planned.
(31 July)

Bancroft honored for 'Images of Native Americans' online exhibit
"Images of Native Americans," an electronic collection that includes images and text from Bancroft Library materials covering 400 years of Native American history, has won a special commendation from the American Library Association
(29 July)

Redwoods go high tech: Researchers use wireless sensors to study California's state tree
To study the moisture that giant redwoods absorb from fog, UC Berkeley biologist Todd Dawson and his graduate students have had to haul 30 pounds of gear some 200 feet up redwood trees in Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties. This daunting task is being made orders of magnitude easier as Dawson teams up with David Culler, professor of computer science at UC Berkeley. The researchers are in the process of installing wireless sensor nodes in redwood forests throughout northern California, starting with the Mather Redwood Grove at the UC Botanical Garden.
(28 July)

Students patrol hills above campus, check for fire dangers and other hazards
Ten UC Berkeley students spend their summers above the campus, working to prevent fires in the Berkeley and Oakland Hills. Called the “eyes and ears of the wildlands” these students are the first responders to emergencies. They patrol, clear brush and make sure the people who hike and run in the area are safe.
(28 July)

Disney internship offers Berkeley grad a path to kids' programming
After many years of creative work with children, UC Berkeley Film Studies grad Debbie Heimowitz is learning the art and business of children's television programming through a prestigious Disney Channel internship.
(25 July)

Berkeley, Hong Kong educators share SARS experiences and strategies
Senior public health and educational faculty from the Chinese University of Hong Kong met this week with UC Berkeley health professors and other officials this week to share their frontline experiences with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
(24 July)

New study challenges prevailing theory of microbial diversity
Genetic differentiation among plants and animals increases with geographic distance between species. But according to the dominant theory of microbial biodiversity, such evolutionary rules do not apply to the tiny world of microorganisms. Researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of Cincinnati are now challenging that theory with a new study that finds significant genetic differences among a species of microbe sampled from around the world.
(24 July)

Regents vote, reluctantly, to boost student fees
Last week’s action taken as part of overall plan to cope with state budget crisis
(23 July)

Picking up the pieces
Getting back to business after a natural disaster will be crucial to both the university and its community, so good preparation is a must.
(23 July)

Regents adopt landmark green-building policy, clean-energy standard
The UC Board of Regents on July 17 approved a universitywide policy for the design of “green” buildings and a standard for the use of “clean” energy.
(23 July)

COrE: Partnering for change
The Center for Organizational Effectiveness works with senior staff to improve processes affecting the entire campus. One desired outcome is less time spent managing crises.
(23 July)

Biotechnology is one key to feeding the world, says Nobelist Norman Borlaug
Nobel Laureate Norman E. Borlaug participants of the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program during a three-day visit to the Berkeley campus.
(23 July)

Physicists build world's smallest motor using nanotubes and etched silicon
Only 15 years after University of California, Berkeley, engineers built the first micro-scale motor, a UC Berkeley physicist has created the first nano-scale motor - a gold rotor on a nanotube shaft that could ride on the back of a virus.
(23 July)

Researchers help define what makes a political conservative
After studying 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism, four researchers report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality. Their work was recently published in the American Psychological Association's Psychological Bulletin.
(22 July)

RHESSI satellite finds tiny microflares on sun are smaller versions of normal flares; could heat corona
Solar flares are the biggest explosions in the solar system and get the most attention, but microflares a million times smaller play perhaps as great a role in heating the atmosphere of the sun. The RHESSI satellite is imaging these microflares for the first time and discovering that they are just like their larger cousins, but much more numerous.
(21 July)

Stars rich in heavy metals tend to harbor planets, astronomers report
What disposes some stars to develop planets and others not? Debra Fischer of UC Berkeley and Jeff Valenti of STScI have done a thorough analysis of 61 stars with planets and 693 without planets, and found that the deciding factor is the amount of heavy elements such as iron in the star. Metal-rich stars have a 20 percent chance of forming planets.
(21 July)

UC Berkeley students enrolling in Arabic classes in record numbers
Since 9/11/2001, UC Berkeley has seen a continuous rise in the number of students studying Arabic. This summer, 60 are enrolled, a record for