Grads urged to take a global view, make global change
The Class of 2008, gathered under sunny skies to celebrate the end of their beginning and the beginning of their new lives, left commencement ceremonies at the Greek Theatre on Tuesday with a clear message ringing in their ears: "Go out and change the world."
(14 May)

Games aside, the real Olympic challenge is engaging with China
As activists excoriate the nation's rulers over human-rights issues, a campus symposium makes the case for a less confrontational attitude toward Beijing.
(08 May)

Craigslist founder to give commencement speech
Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist, the hip and ubiquitous classified advertising Web site, says he'll be winging his keynote speech to graduating seniors at UC Berkeley's Commencement Convocation next Tuesday, May 13. But overall, Newmark says he will urge students to change the world using the tools of the Internet, and to follow these simple business do's and don'ts: "Never read a prepared speech unless you're really good at it; for a genuine perspective on corporate life, read Dilbert; and brevity is the soul of wit."
(08 May)

Panel to explore U.S. universities' role in global development
The role that U.S. universities play in global development will be addressed in a panel discussion on Thursday, April 17, as part of the official launch of UC Berkeley's new Center for Evaluation for Global Action (CEGA).
(16 April)

This year’s Sustainability Summit definitely has an agenda
Reflecting the growing importance of sustainability on campus, Berkeley’s fifth annual summit on the issue is expanding to a half-day, with workshops on everything from greening your own life to the energy frontier far beyond fossil fuels.
(16 April)

Bush under fire, friendly and otherwise
A Pulitzer-winning historian, a Washington bureau chief, a neoconservative pundit, and the chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign gathered on campus last week to assess the Bush presidency. History, it seems, hath no fury like a brain-truster scorned.
(16 April)

Sights, sounds, and stories from around the world
Springtime signals the arrival of the San Francisco International Film Festival, which has served up a banquet of global film for 51 years. Among the festival’s venues is the campus’s Pacific Film Archive, whose senior film curator, Susan Oxtoby, personally chooses the works that will screen there — 36 of the festival’s 100-plus invited films this year.
(16 April)

A snapshot of diversity, Berkeley-style
In a two-day photo session, hundreds of staff, faculty, and students line up to say ‘cheese’ . . . . and ‘thank you.’
(09 April)

Scandinavian language smorgasbord
Want to learn how to say "I love Cal Day" in Swedish? How about in Norwegian, Danish or Finnish? On Cal Day in Room 33 of Dwinelle Hall, the Scandinavian Department will offer free, 30-minute lessons starting at 11 a.m. that essentially offer highlights of the first day of UC Berkeley classes in beginning Finnish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.
(03 April)

"Math girl" makes music
A wide variety of music will echo across campus on Cal Day, but Nicole Campbell's got a niche all her own. The long-haired, acoustic guitar-strumming, third-year UC Berkeley student will be in Room 1015 of Evans Hall performing songs she wrote about math and science.
(03 April)

Meet the (flesh-eating) beetles — performing one day only
That would be Cal Day, naturally, a multi-species extravaganza of science, art, awesomeness, and just plain fun for the whole Cal family.

(02 April)

All keyed up: 25 students vie for an 80-year-old Steinway
Generosity and serendipity both play a part in the first Berkeley Piano Competition.
(02 April)

Literary scholar Annabel Patterson to deliver Tanner Lectures
Annabel Patterson, Sterling Professor Emerita of English at Yale and a distinguished literary scholar, will present the Tanner Lectures on Human Values on April 8 and 9. On April 10 she will take part in a seminar discussion with commentators from three academic disciplines.
(02 April)

Understanding the Middle East, or not
On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, a retired commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East shared this year's Nimitz lectures with the former head of the CIA's bin Laden desk. But where Gen. John Abizaid said we're on the right track in the "war on terror," Michael Scheuer said we've got it all wrong.

(19 March)

Anniversary of a rebellion
An exhibit of photos by Serge Hambourg at the Berkeley Art Museum captures the spirit of the 1968 Paris student revolt that nearly brought down the government of Charles De Gaulle. It's complemented at the Pacific Film Archive by "The Clash of '68," a series of films based on the theme of rebellion that infused the '60s generally.
(19 March)

Fun and enlightenment for 35,000 will be the order of the day
Cal Day, the campus’s annual open house, is April 12.
(19 March)

Daniel Boyarin will deliver Faculty Research Lecture
His April 1 talk on Plato and the Talmud is the second of two lectures in the 2008 series.

(19 March)

Human trafficking steps from the shadows
Forum on modern-day slavery focuses on its victims, and on the belief of many in the United States — and in California — that it can't happen here.
(12 March)

Chemist to deliver year’s first Faculty Research Lecture
Each year, two Berkeley faculty distinguished for their scholarly research are nominated by their peers
in the Academic Senate to deliver a Faculty Research Lecture during the spring. The 95th annual Faculty Research Lectures will be delivered this year by Jean M. J. Fréchet, the Henry Rapoport Professor of Organic Chemistry and a faculty member in chemical engineering, and Daniel Boyarin, the Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture in the departments of Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric.
(12 March)

Prime-time torture gets a reality check
Among the many fans of Fox TV's 24 are U.S. Supreme Court justices and the head of Homeland Security. But the program Newsweek called "a neocon sex fantasy" also has its devotees in the U.S. military, where, according to some critics, it's viewed less as fantasy than as a training manual.
(05 March)

A century of Cal student fashion to be displayed
Battered hats and dirt-encrusted brown corduroy pants might scream 1990s grunge. But these shabby fashion statements were all the rage at UC Berkeley in the late 1890s and early 1900s. "The more disgusting they were, the higher status they held," said William Benemann, curator of a new campus exhibit "From Plugs to Bling: A Century of Cal Student Fashion."
(03 March)

Bigfoot casts a philosophical shadow
To some eyewitness observers, giant Sasquatch footprints at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology — alleged to be those of a creature named Cripplefoot — represent a small step out of the dense woods of ridicule and into the bright light of philosophy, romance, and "vigilante science."
(27 February)

The commander-in-chief and the courts
The winner of the 2008 presidential election will potentially shape the future composition of the U.S. Supreme Court. This aspect of the presidential contest, infrequently discussed in media coverage of the primaries, took center stage Feb. 21 at the UC Berkeley School of Law, where a group of legal experts discussed "The Next President and the Courts."
(25 February)

State Ballet of Georgia launches first-ever U.S. tour at UC Berkeley
The State Ballet of Georgia launches its first-ever U.S. tour at UC Berkeley Feb. 14, presented by Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall in shows that run through Sunday. The ballet's American visit highlights the once-struggling troupe’s resurgence after an era of political repression and economic deprivation
(14 February)

What do we mean when we talk of love?
Psychology prof Dacher Keltner investigates the many facets of everyone's favorite heartfelt emotion — from the passionate urges of early romance to the connections some people are able to feel for humanity at large.
(13 February)

General says Abu Ghraib scandal will resonate ‘for years to come’
In a rare public appearance last week at International House, Antonio Taguba said revelations about abuse at the now-notorious Baghdad prison “affected the moral and ethical conscience of our nation,” and blamed U.S. leaders for what he called "the ambiguity of rules of war."
(13 February)

Web conference takes on "silver tsunami"
As America scrambles to meet the retirement needs of 78 million aging Baby Boomers, UC Berkeley is cyber-surfing ahead of the so-called "silver tsunami" by launching its first-ever online conference to help create aging-friendly communities.
(12 February)

Rewriting history and poking fun at the powers that be
“Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia,” a 25-year survey of the artist’s work that showcases his wide-ranging palette, will open at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive on February 13.
(06 February)

Berkeley, and the nation, turn the spotlight on climate change
In an all-day series of symposiums Jan. 31 at International House, the UC Berkeley campus joined with other colleges and universities across America to 'Focus the Nation' on global warming.
(01 February)

Faculty, students available for presidential campaign interviews
As the California primary approaches, University of California, Berkeley, students, faculty and staff are available to provide news outlets with interviews and analysis of major campaign issues such as the economy and immigration. In addition, several election-related forums and events will be held on campus during the campaign season.
(30 January)

Coming attractions for spring 2008: Global warming, rebellion, and redemption
A lineup of events that will challenge the mind, entertain the senses, and depart from the conventional fills the spring semester's calendar at Berkeley.
(25 January)

Frances Allen: A pioneer in high-performance computing
The explorer, adventurer, and renowned computer scientist will be on campus to deliver a Regents’ Lecture, “The Challenge of the Multi-Cores: Think Sequential, Run Parallel,” at 4 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 31, in Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center. The Berkeleyan caught up with her last week for a conversation.
(23 January)

Fiction readers get their moment in the campus spotlight
The campus’s popular Lunch Poems series will gain a prose companion when Story Hour in the Library debuts next Thursday, Jan. 24, at 5 p.m. in Doe Library’s Morrison Library.
(16 January)

Might as well face it — we’re addicted to oil
The first step in cleaning up the environment is plugging in our cars, says Clintonista-turned-Brookings-scholar David Sandalow.
(28 November)

Inside Innovation conference to showcase faculty research
UC Berkeley's business faculty will share their latest research, opinions and insights on driving innovation in business at the inaugural Inside Innovation 2007 conference on Saturday (Nov. 17) at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.The all-day conference celebrates the 50th anniversary of California Management Review, the Haas School's peer-reviewed, practitioner-oriented journal. The publication's special anniversary issue on "Leading through Innovation" focuses entirely on Haas School faculty research that explores innovation in business.
(13 November)

Donald Kennedy on the control of scientific knowledge
In the first of three Clark Kerr Lectures, the editor-in-chief of Science,
former head of Stanford University, and FDA commissioner for President
Jimmy Carter traces the current state of university science to a Bush in
FDR’s White House.
(08 November)

In Burma, repression — and rebellion — are linked to healthcare crisis
Human Rights Center researchers find the roots of the 'Saffron Revolution' in the despair, desperation, and disease that have come with decades of harsh military rule.
(31 October)

Graduate Council Lectures showcase Freeman, Heilbron, and Dretske
The Graduate Division has announced the first Graduate Council Lectures for 2007-08, bringing distinguished scholars in economics, history, and philosophy to campus between now and mid-November.
(24 October)

At Zellerbach, visions of the technological
Charlie Rose, Laura Tyson, and leaders in high tech chart a course on education, immigration, globalization, innovation, and the coming green revolution.
(17 October)

Come home (and visit the kids)
It's Homecoming & Parents Weekend at Berkeley, Friday, Oct. 12 through Sunday, Oct. 14. The combined celebration gives alumni and the parents of current students an overview of all the things that make this campus special — from a stellar roster of faculty seminars and a skein of tours and open houses to all the activities surrounding Saturday's football game with Oregon State.
(10 October)

Mental-health priorities: increasing awareness, decreasing stigma
Mental Health Awareness Week takes place at Berkeley starting on Monday, Oct. 15. Lectures, a self-administered "mental-health check-in" survey, and a panoply of "address your stress" activities (free massages, anyone?) are among the key elements of this expanded program.
(10 October)

Seven score and four years ago …
Historian Garry Wills, author of Lincoln at Gettsysburg and the focus of Berkeley's "On the Same Page" program, looks back at how the nation's 16th president changed America for the better — and compares and contrasts Lincoln with today's leadership.
(03 October)

Thoroughly modern — and steps ahead of her time
There was once a time when the boundaries between ballet and modern dance seemed clear ... but that was before Twyla Tharp set the dance world on its ear. Cal Performances highlights her career with upcoming performances by the Joffrey, Miami City Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre, supported by a full campus program of lectures, conversations, and films.
(03 October)

Next assignment: Lincoln at Gettysburg
“On the Same Page,” a signature program of the College of Letters and Science, is highlighting its second year by exploring the most famous speech in American history with Garry Wills, author of Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America.
(19 September)

Campus to honor those it has lost
On Tuesday, Oct. 2, the Berkeley campus will gather for its sixth annual memorial service to honor those of its own who have died during the past year.
(19 September)

Coming attractions for fall 2007 find inspiration in East Asia
Conferences and a bloom of events inspired by the dedication of the new C.V. Starr East Asian Library and Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies highlight the fall calendar at UC Berkeley. Scholars, dance and opera enthusiasts are in for a rare treat
(04 September)

"On the Same Page" program features opera about Lincoln's assassination
A free campus performance Thursday (Aug. 23) of a wrenching but humorous opera about President Abraham Lincoln's assassination highlights this semester's "On the Same Page" program hosted by the College of Letters & Science.
(22 August)

S. Shankar Sastry named new dean of engineering
S. Shankar Sastry, NEC Distinguished Professor and former chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley, has been appointed the campus's new dean of the College of Engineering. His appointment was approved July 19 by the UC Board of Regents and is retroactive to July 1.
(19 July)

'The university is a subversive force' (and other wisdom from the podium)
Good graduation pictures, in capturing joy and a sense of accomplishment, resemble one another strongly. Good graduation speeches, if carefully written, strike their own singular chords. Here, examples of both, from the Berkeley commencement season just concluded.
(06 June)

Commencement Convocation this Wednesday
Network television news reporter Bob Woodruff, Oakland hip-hop artist Boots Riley, Nobel physicist Andrew Fire and Lt. Gen. Daniel Leaf, deputy commander of the U.S. Air Force, are among the diverse luminaries set to offer inspiration and practical advice this month to graduates at UC Berkeley. Ceremonies begin this Wednesday, May 9, at 4 p.m. with Commencement Convocation, an event for all graduating seniors at the campus's Greek Theatre
(07 May)

For 90 minutes this week, Berkeley was Carter Center West
Before a packed Zellerbach Hall audience on Wednesady, former President Jimmy Carter urged the United States to reassume its role as "honest broker" in the Middle East, citing strong support among Israelis for a deal that would trade territory for a lasting peace.
(03 May)

Jimmy Carter to speak at Zellerbach on May 2
Former President Jimmy Carter will speak on the UC Berkeley campus on Wednesday, May 2, at 4:30 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall on the subject of his latest book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."
(19 April)

Dance takes center stage in 2007-08 Cal Performances season

(18 April)

'The promise of higher education at San Quentin'
UC Berkeley alumna Jody Lewen '02 is receiving the prestigious Peter E. Haas Public Service Award for her contributions as director of a college program at San Quentin State Prison. In a lecture on April 21, Cal Day, she'll speak on her work.
(16 April)

Contemporary world cinema, right on Bancroft Way
Pacific Film Archive curator Susan Oxtoby shares her picks from the 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival.
(12 April)

Cal Day to pulsate with extra energy
Blue and gold will equal green on Cal Day, Saturday, April 21, as UC Berkeley's annual open house spotlights research into green sustainable energy.
(11 April)

Afghan ambassador to the U.S. to speak at UC Berkeley on April 17, student penny campaign begins
Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said T. Jawad, will speak at the University of California, Berkeley, on Tuesday, April 17, about efforts to secure peace in his war-torn country. At a reception following his talk, Jawad and his wife, Shamin, will be presented with money collected by UC Berkeley students through a Roots of Peace penny campaign.
(06 April)

Joshua Cohen to present Tanner Lectures
Joshua Cohen, a distinguished political philosopher, will present this year's Tanner Lectures on Human Values, a three-day event to be held April 10-12.
(04 April)

Religion, cartoons, and the law
When a Danish newspaper published images of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, much of the world responded with outrage. But what is the appropriate legal response to religious outrage? Robert Post, this year's Una's Lecturer, argues for a distinction between hate speech and ordinary expression.
(21 March)

The responsibility to protect
A newly emerging international doctrine, the "responsibility to protect," was at the heart of a two-day human rights conference last week on the Berkeley campus.
(21 March)

Mark your calendars for Cal Day 2007
The Berkeley campus's popular spring open house takes place Saturday, April 21.
(21 March)

Origins of the universe: Stephen Hawking's J. Robert Oppenheimer Lecture
The is the text of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Lecture in Physics, delivered March 13, 2007, by Stephen Hawking, the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University. Hawking spoke at Zellerbach Hall on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
(16 March)

A grand stage for our lives and times
American historian Michael Kammen, of Cornell University, will discuss the history of the National Mall — from the early plans sketched out in the late 1700s to its role as the site of major antiwar and civil-rights protests in recent decades — in a Jefferson Memorial Lecture set for Monday, March 18.
(14 March)

Human rights conference to tackle "R2P" resolution
A year after the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted the "Responsibility to Protect" resolution, human rights groups are pressing world leaders to act on their declaration to stem genocide and other atrocities. At UC Berkeley next Tuesday, the campus's Human Rights Center will launch the West Coast's first conference to work on how to implement the ambitious principle known as "R2P."
(08 March)

Faculty and undergrads get on the same page
Superstar cosmologist Stephen Hawking's visit to campus — four years in the making — finally becomes a reality this Tuesday. If you haven't been caught up in the excitement, well, the explanation could have something to do with black holes.
(07 March)

Preventing the unthinkable
An international assembly of policymakers, legislators, philanthropists, religious leaders, scholars, and activists will discuss how state governments can be encouraged to stop genocide and other mass atrocities at "Stopping Mass Atrocities: An International Conference on the Responsibility to Protect," set for Tuesday and Wednesday, March 13 and 14.
(07 March)

Cosmologist Stephen Hawking to draw crowds
It's a rare day that a physics lecture at UC Berkeley fills 2,000 seats, with an overflow crowd of several hundred people eager to watch a live video simulcast on a big screen.But that day will arrive next Tuesday on campus when cosmology superstar Stephen Hawking delivers the annual J. Robert Oppenheimer Lecture in Physics.
(06 March)

Michael Pollan, Whole Foods' John Mackey usher Berkeley foodies into 'ecological era'
A sellout crowd turned out on a rainy, blustery evening for a conversation between a reporter and a grocer — Berkeley professor and food detective Michael Pollan, and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who discussed the history of agriculture and the future of organic food.
(28 February)

It's Bob Reich's story, and he's sticking to it
The Berkeley professor, former Cabinet member, and sometime playwright outlined 'four narratives of American public life' in last week's Townsend Center appearance.
(28 February)

Mathematician Vaughan Jones to discuss 'a new kind of algebra' in next Faculty Research Lecture
In the second 2007 Faculty Research Lecture — titled "Flatland, a Great Place to Do Algebra" — Berkeley mathematician Vaughan Jones will discuss a new kind of algebra based on two-dimensional configurations, hoping to "communicate its flavor and give some idea of where it should be useful."
(28 February)

Faculty Research Lecturer Martin Jay to speak Feb. 28
When, if ever, is it defensible to lie in the political arena? In the first of two 2007 Faculty Research Lectures, historian Martin Jay will canvass the arguments that have been made since Plato's defense of the "noble lie," and provide a fresh way to consider the functions of mendacity.
(21 February)

The real cost of a café latte
Black Gold, a 2006 documentary showing on campus next Friday as part of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, exposes the bitter grounds at the bottom of your cup.
(14 February)

Poetry's 'inherited and inexhaustible mystery'
In his appearance at last week's inaugural event of the Townsend Center's "Forum on the Humanities and the Public World" series, former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky made a persuasive case for the necessity of poetry in American life.
(08 February)

Nobel laureate Kahneman to deliver Hitchcock Lectures
Eminent psychologist and behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman will deliver the Hitchcock Lectures for spring 2007. His lectures will address the topic "Explorations of the Mind."
(26 January)

"There is no time": Six Nobel Laureates say averting world's climate crisis requires immediate research, conservation, and regulation
The six Nobel Laureates who participated in the sold-out "Energy Self-Sufficiency in the 21st Century" colloquium took the global climate crisis as the starting point for a freewheeling discussion about the urgent need to make conservation a national way of life, get the U.S. public to accept nuclear reactors, and persuade the U.S. government to serve as a world leader in developing clean, renewable energy sources.
(22 January)

Hearst Museum to open "Land of the Rajas" exhibit
"From the Land of the Rajas: Creativity in Rajasthan," a new exhibition that opens Feb. 2 at the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, explores a northwestern Indian state famed for its princely rulers’ enthusiasm for a wide range of colorful and distinctive art styles.
(22 January)

Pssst … Cal students! Wanna buy a cheap ticket to the ballet? How about the circus?
Imagine seeing the legendary Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater defy gravity for the same price as Ben Stiller defying history in "A Night of the Museum." You could — if you're a UC Berkeley student willing to be both spontaneous and flexible about getting your entertainment fix. To entice more students to venture through the doors of Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances has been quietly selling last-minute, $10 "rush" tickets to many shows an hour before the curtain goes up.
(19 January)

A single window onto all that happens at Berkeley
With the launch of a new campuswide online calendar, staying on top of campus events is about to get a whole lot easier.
(17 January)