New life for lifelong learning at Berkeley
It took two tries for Berkeley's lifelong learning center to achieve liftoff. Now, in its second incarnation, OLLI@Berkeley has become a vital resource for nearly 1,000 enthusiastic students over the age of 50 - and a bridge between the campus and the greater Bay Area community.
(07 January)

Grant launches Berkeley Economic History Lab
The University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Economics is the recipient of a $1.25 million grant from the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) to develop a Berkeley Economic History Laboratory to train more historically literate economists who can contribute to policy debates and help avoid devastating economic crises.
(02 November)

Researchers advocate teacher training, mentoring to boost preschool results
The report, Lifting Pre-K Quality: Caring and Effective Teachers," says governors and federal leaders should rely less on regulations and more on improving teacher quality to combat the often disappointing benefits of preschool.
(20 October)

Berkeley adds Math for America to help solve STEM education equation
Six outstanding math and science teachers from public schools in the Bay Area have just begun five-year fellowships on campus through the new Math for America Berkeley program. It's a new approach for Berkeley's mission to help fill a critical need for the nation: better math and science education.
(19 October)

National Research Council ranks UC Berkeley's Ph.D. programs among nation's best
The first detailed survey since 1995 of doctoral programs at the nation's research universities shows that UC Berkeley continues to have the largest number of highly ranked graduate programs in the country. The rankings, by the National Research Council, confirm "that UC Berkeley is the nation’s preeminent public university for doctoral studies in a huge number and wide variety of disciplines," said graduate dean Andrew Szeri.
(28 September)

Expert forum to explore implications of grading teachers
Joining a national debate about the Los Angeles Times’ recent publication of its own evaluations of 6,000 elementary school teachers, the University of California, Berkeley, is hosting a Sept. 27 experts forum, “Grading the Teachers: Measures, Media and Policies.
(14 September)

Chancellor 'cautiously optimistic' about the year ahead
At Chancellor Birgeneau's back-to-school press briefing Aug. 26, the mood was notably sunnier than a year ago, when the campus was reeling from severe cuts in state funding. Faculty, staff, administrators, students, alumni, donors — "everyone contributed" to meeting the crisis, he told reporters.
(27 August)

Eight UC Berkeley students receive Fulbright scholarship
Eight students from the University of California, Berkeley, have received Fulbright scholarships to travel and study abroad for the 2010-11 academic school year.
(27 July)

Philanthropist keeps memories of fallen youth alive through scholarships
The Phoebe Prince Memorial Scholarship Endowment Fund marks the 24th scholarship Michael Mahoney has established at UC Berkeley. Each of his scholarships, collectively valued at more than $9 million, commemorates a young life cut short.
(21 July)

Chancellor Birgeneau urges Congress to pass the DREAM Act
Leaders in higher education, including UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, have asked Congress to act on the DREAM Act, allowing young undocumented immigrants who grew up in the U.S. to get a college education and have a path to legal residency.
(21 July)

57 Berkeley grads join elite Teach for America corps
Teach for America has named UC Berkeley as one of the top five large universities contributing graduating seniors to its 2010 teaching corps.
(20 July)

In their own words: UC Berkeley students on the impact of campus budget cuts
When all is said and done, the story of the 2009-10 academic year at the University of California is the story of unprecedented cuts in state funding. What has this meant, at Berkeley, to students trying to get an education? Twelve students share their experiences.
(11 May)

Sports 'no sanctuary from drugs, racism and corruption' — but studying it can still be fun
Leora Lawton - sociologist, Deadhead, baseball fan - resurrected Harry Edwards' course to introduce students to 'the sociology of race, and ethnicity, and sex, and age, and class, and business, and politics,' among other things
(27 April)

Judith Warren Little named dean of Graduate School of Education
Judith Warren Little, the Carol Liu Chair in Educational Policy at the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Education, has been appointed the school's dean, effective July 1.
(26 April)

Four professors win 2010 Distinguished Teaching Awards
UC Berkeley’s 2010 Distinguished Teaching Award, the campus’s top honor for exceptional teaching, is being awarded today (Thursday, April 22) to four professors in the fields of computer science, linguistics, engineering and business.
(22 April)

Charles Muscatine, Chaucer scholar and educational reformer, dies at 89
Charles Muscatine, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of English, a scholar of Chaucer and medieval literature, and an educational reformer known for refusing to sign a state loyalty oath during the McCarthy era, died of an infection in Oakland on Friday, March 12. He was 89.
(17 March)

Berkeley Scholars to Cal works to close the achievement gap
By providing both extra schooling and good examples, the 10-year-old Berkeley Scholars to Cal gives promising African American and Latino students the beliefand boost they need to get into college. New statistics show the progress its participants have made.
(09 March)

Wendy Brown: Without quality public education, there is no future for democracy
UC Berkeley professor of political science Wendy Brown was among the more than 200 Berkeley faculty members who traveled to Sacramento on March 4. A co-chair of the Berkeley Faculty Association, she gave the following address on the capital steps during the "Educate the State" rally.
(05 March)

March 4 rallies to 'Defend Public Education' planned for Berkeley and around state
Major rallies to express concern about the future of public education in California are expected to take place throughout the state on Thursday, March 4, including here at UC Berkeley.
(03 March)

Berkeley students join Sacramento lobbying blitz
A small group of UC Berkeley students are en route this morning to Sacramento, where they plan to join a small army of their peers in urging state legislators to reinvest in public higher education.
(01 March)

'Faculty need to participate directly in remaking the State of California,' says Academic Senate chair
Faced with an alarming budget crisis, the Academic Senate has recently become a hub for faculty deliberation and activity on an array of important decisions — some reversible, some not — concerning the character and structure of the campus and the UC system. Senate Chair Chris Kutz shares his perspective on the challenges of shared governance in a time of unprecedented change.
(18 February)

Top quality graduate students flock to UC Berkeley despite budget woes
Despite a budget shortfall, hiring freeze and higher fees, the University of California, Berkeley, continues to attract more and higher quality graduate students, according to new data from the campus's Graduate Division.
(03 February)

Researcher's study sheds new light on math ability, gender equity
Marcia Linn, a University of California, Berkeley, professor of education known for exploring the teaching and learning of science and their connection to gender, is offering proof once again that girls' math abilities are just as good as boys'.
(11 January)

Untraditional students of the world
The federally funded Gilman International Scholarship helps cash-strapped students, and other undergrads who have been underrepresented in study-abroad programs, take their studies international. For the current academic year, 20 UC Berkeley undergrads have been awarded Gilmans, making Berkeley the second-leading recipient of the scholarship nationwide.
(03 December)

Review of Wheeler Hall protest to be undertaken
Campus leaders have announced that a review is underway of the crowd control measures used by police on November 20, when 40 protesters occupied Wheeler Hall.
(23 November)

Report calls for coordinated family-friendly policies in research sciences
Women in the sciences must often choose between family and academic careers, according to a new report authored by researchers at the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic & Family Security (Berkeley CHEFS) at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
(12 November)

Studies find Latino toddlers' gap in cognitive growth
Two new studies led by UC Berkeley researchers find that immigrant Latina mothers, who typically live in poor neighborhoods, give birth to healthy babies, but their toddlers start to lag behind middle-class white children in basic language and cognitive skills by the age of 2 or 3.
(20 October)

Honorary degrees for students affected by World War II internment order
Approximately 500 Japanese Americans, whose education at UC Berkeley was interrupted by a 1942 executive order that confined about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry to internment camps, are eligible to receive honorary degrees at a special campus ceremony on Sunday, Dec. 13.
(08 September)

Law school enhances loan forgiveness program in response to tough economy
In an effort to help its students and alumni during the current economic crisis, the UC Berkeley School of Law has significantly strengthened its Loan Repayment Assistance Program, already one of the nation's most generous loan forgiveness plans.
(03 September)

Berkeley Unified's racial integration plan a model for other school districts nationwide, says new report
A new UC Berkeley-UCLA report says the Berkeley Unified School District's plan to maintain diversity could serve as a model for other public schools nationwide that are seeking constitutionally sound desegregation programs. Not only has the integration plan achieved substantial integration, it was upheld earlier this year by the state appellate court, a decision that the California Supreme Court allowed to stand.
(01 September)

Latest U.S. News rankings place Berkeley, again, at the top of the publics
U.S. News & World Report's 2010 guide to "America's Best Colleges," released yesterday, ranked Berkeley 21st among 262 public and private "national universities" offering doctoral degrees.
(21 August)

McNair Scholars, 300 strong, converge at Berkeley to showcase their research
Last weekend 300 undergrads from around the country converged on the Berkeley campus for the four-day McNair Scholars symposium, where they shared research findings in a wide range of fields, from sociology to bioscience, and celebrated their completion of the program and their ambitions for grad school and the future.
(12 August)

Smarts, for sure — but what other qualities make a good lawyer?
The LSAT, in tandem with GPA, the gold standard for U.S. law-school admissions, may do a great job identifying potentially stellar law students — but picking the ones who will ultimately make the best lawyers takes a broader approach, according to groundbreaking research by two Berkeley experts.
(04 August)

Communal Webcasting platform to beef up campus's popular educational content
As a growing number of worldwide learners log on, free of charge, to video and podcast lectures and events at UC Berkeley, the campus is leading an international effort to build a communal Webcasting platform to more easily record and distribute its popular educational content.
(28 July)

Berkeley will remain great, but will it retain its public character?
In a July 22 blog post on the Atlantic website, correspondent Erik Tarloff decried the impending cuts at UC Berkeley, resulting from California's budget crisis, as a "great tragedy" whose damage is "likely to be irreversible." Chancellor Robert Birgeneau responds.
(24 July)

Growing young scientists in Tahiti
Graduate student Brad Balukjian spent a year teaching biodiversity to Tahitian 5th graders on the island of Moorea while pursuing study of the island's endemic insects.
(06 July)

As voters weigh state's budget options, UC Berkeley eyes severe options for addressing cuts
With a slate of critical ballot propositions facing voters on Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday offered two revised scenarios for mending the state's worsening budget outlook. One is bad news for the University of California. The other, for some, is too grim to contemplate.
(15 May)

Mentoring is its own reward … but plaques are nice, too
A recent round of awards honor the campus's invaluable graduate-student instructors . . . and the faculty who mentor them.
(07 May)

American Cultures: Discussing differences, building bridges
"Tough conversations" about race and ethnicity occur almost daily at Berkeley, many of them in classes designed to meet a campus requirement dating to the late 1980s.
(09 April)

PACE hosts teacher pay conferences
New ways of compensating teachers in an era of ferocious budget shortfalls will be the topic of discussion for about 400 school superintendents, leaders of teacher organizations and school board members from across California at conferences next Monday and Tuesday (March 30-31) in Oakland and Los Angeles.
(26 March)

Political scientist Henry Brady new Goldman School dean
Political scientist Henry E. Brady, a leading scholar of public opinion, political movements, politics and public policy in the United States, Canada, Russia, Estonia and other countries, has been appointed dean of the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.
(20 March)

U.S. economy spurs foreign students to return home, study says
Most foreign nationals studying at universities in the United States say American higher education is the best in the world, but few plan to remain in this country after graduation to pursue their careers, according to a new study co-authored by a UC Berkeley, authority on technology and the global economy.
(19 March)

Who teaches the teachers? Spelling out the ABCs of pedagogy
While technology has revolutionized the classroom, the past decade has seen a wave of new research on how people learn. Barbara Gross Davis rewrote her 1993 Tools for Teaching to address both these developments.
(11 March)

Stiles Hall: a 'living room' with a committed fan club
It's a student-services center, a cauldron of social causes, an incubator for campus and community initiatives, and an important contributor to Berkeley's diversity.
(04 March)

Kepler in the classroom
Just as NASA's Kepler mission and its search for habitable planets has grabbed the public's attention, Alan Gould hopes that the mission will galvanize student interest in science as well. Since 2001, Gould, coordinator of the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) space science programs, has been gearing up for launch as Kepler's co-investigator for education and public outreach.
(03 March)

MBA competition to address D.C. schools performance
Ten teams from top business schools around the country will set their sights on improving the public school system in the nation's capitol in the third annual Education Leadership Case Competition at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business on Feb. 20-21.
(10 February)