WikiLeaks philosophy under a scholarly microscope
While reporters, pundits and politicians write and rail about the latest WikiLeaks revelations of secret documents and the activities of its founder, Julian Assange, an online scholarly assessment of the WikiLeaks philosophy developed from Assange's 2006 essays has turned a spotlight on a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student in African literature.
(17 December)

'Capturing the campus' or 'Campus captured'
Call it a visual form of academic introspection. This semester, a new Freshman Seminar, "Photographing History in the Making," used the campus itself as a source for, and subject of, scholarly inquiry.
(17 December)

Probing the haphazard rise of harsh supermaximum prisons
Across the nation, 25,000 high-risk prisoners are currently housed in "supermaximum" units designed for extreme sensory and social deprivation. Berkeley grad student Keramet Reiter — researching the rise of this harsh form of confinement — has pored through archives and listened to former prisoners' powerful accounts of near-total isolation and its psychological effects.
(07 December)

RRR week begins on campus
Reading/Review/Recitation week begins today, Dec. 6. The week replaces traditional "dead days" or "dead week” as a formalized time for students to prepare for exams, to work on final papers and projects, and to participate in optional review sessions and meetings with instructors.
(06 December)

Students stage mock-trial to engage in international law, human rights
Students in the political science course "Accountability for International Human Rights Violations" reenact high-profile, international trials and act as prosecutors, defense and judges. In their most recent trial, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld faced charges of extradition to France to be tried there for violating international torture laws.
(02 December)

UC Berkeley releases fall 2010 final enrollment data
Overall enrollment at the University of California, Berkeley, remains at approximately 35,800 undergraduate and graduate students, according to final fall 2010 enrollment data that campus officials released today (Thursday, Dec. 2).
(02 December)

At the heart of campus, BicyCal opens its new 'hub'
The student cooperative BicyCal showcased its new, centrally located, if humble, "hub" on Friday. The grand opening took place in a long-shuttered stairway connecting upper and lower Sproul Plaza, cleverly repurposed as a "peer-to-peer" bike-maintenance education center. The group aims to grow the campus's cycling culture, and sees the new center as a keystone to that effort.
(23 November)

Legalize marijuana? Pro, con, or undecided, Berkeley students sound off on Prop. 19
On Nov. 2, state voters will decide on a controversial and quintessentially California ballot measure, Proposition 19, the "Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010." Where do students at Berkeley, with its reputation for liberalism (accurate or not) come down on the issue? Eleven campus undergraduates think out loud about the pros and cons of Prop. 19.
(19 October)

"Mad Men" explored in new UC Berkeley course
This semester, a DeCal class discusses themes in the wildly popular series "Mad Men."
(13 October)

Campus to celebrate grand opening of Blum Hall today at 2 p.m.
Richard C. Blum Hall, a new headquarters at UC Berkeley for creating innovative solutions to global poverty, will open its doors to the public today (Friday, Oct. 8). Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz will deliver the keynote address at the dedication ceremony, which starts at 2 p.m.
(08 October)

'Day of Action' protesters take over Doe Library reading room
At a mid-day rally on Sproul Plaza during Thursday's 'Day of Action,' student and faculty speakers addressed a crowd of about 800 protesting cuts to public education. Many of the protesters then moved to Doe Library, where they took over its main reading room.
(07 October)

Three J-school documentaries to premiere at Mill Valley Film Fest
Short documentaries by three 2010 graduates of Berkeley's journalism school have won coveted spots in the Mill Valley Film Festival, which starts Thursday. The 26-minute films depict toxic waste dumping in Africa, the living limbo of the Nukak Maku people forced out of the Amazon jungle, and the dilemma faced by elderly people deciding whether to drive. They premiere on Sunday on the same bill, "Truth Be Told."
(05 October)

Student Parent Center and Summer Bridge team up to help student parents
Three incoming freshmen, who are also young parents, will be among those who complete the UC Berkeley Summer Bridge program on Friday. The young women have received mentoring and student services from the Transfer, Re-Entry, and Student Parent Center to help with their transition.
(06 August)

Memorial service planned for UC Berkeley sophomore and plane crash victim Misha Dawood
A memorial service is being planned for Sunday, Aug. 29, for Misha Dawood, a UC Berkeley sophomore and rising soccer talent who was among 152 passengers killed last Wednesday in what is being deemed Pakistan's deadliest air crash
(03 August)

Documenting women's reproductive choices in Brazil
Human Rights Fellow Ugo Edu, posting for the NewsCenter's "Student Journal" series, reports from the field on her summer research, documenting Brazilian women's experiences with tubal ligation and other contraceptive alternatives.
(14 July)

Defending the human rights of Muslim women
Human Rights Fellow Rochelle Terman, posting for the NewsCenter's "Student Journal" series, reports from the field on her summer research, documenting the work of women's organizations in seven countries with laws and customs said to derive from Islam.
(21 June)

Examining justice alternatives in the South Bronx
Human Rights Fellow Kony Kim, posting for the NewsCenter's "Student Journal" series, reports from the field on her experience as a summer legal intern for the Bronx Defenders, a legal-aid organization in New York City.
(16 June)

Bears on Bikes: Day 7
AIDS LifeCycle 9 raised $10 million for AIDS/HIV services and awareness, and ended Saturday, June 12 with the arrival of close to 2,000 cyclists and 400 roadies in Los Angeles. To wrap up a week of reporting from the road, 11 members of the Cal team offer final thoughts on the experience.
(15 June)

Bears on Bikes: Day 6
Cal alum Devin Wicks directs fitness operations at the campus's Recreational Sports Facility. He reports here on Day 6 of the 2010 AIDS LifeCycle, the Lompoc-to-Ventura leg.
(14 June)

Bears on Bikes: Day 5
Alumna Sabine Zimmermann, '06, a former Cal rower, reports from the road on Day 5 of the AIDS LifeCycle, the Santa Maria-to-Lompoc leg.
(11 June)

Bears on Bikes: Day 4
Eric Trautman, who just completed his sophomore year at UC Berkeley, reports on Day 4 of the AIDS LifeCycle, from Paso Robles to Santa Maria.
(10 June)

Bears on Bikes: Day 3
Reporting for the Cal team, about Day 3 of the AIDS LifeCycle — Tuesday's leg from King City to Paso Robles — is Lu Zhu, who just graduated from Berkeley.
(09 June)

Bears on Bikes: Day 2
Reporting from the AIDS LifeCyle Cal team, about Day 2 the ride — Monday's leg from Santa Cruz to King City — is Jonathan Goodrich, a staff member at UC Berkeley's Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology.
(09 June)

Bears on bikes: Day 1
On June 6, UC Berkeley's AIDS LifeCycle team left San Francisco for Santa Cruz on the first leg of a seven-day benefit ride to L.A. Team members Celeste Roschuni, a mechanical engineering PhD student, and Josh Schoenfeld, a campus staff member, report from Santa Cruz at the end of Day 1.
(07 June)

Bears on Bikes: 'You're riding your bicycle from San Francisco to L.A.?!'
On June 6, 23 members of UC Berkeley's AIDS LifeCycle team — students, staff, and alums — will leave San Francisco, along with more than 2,500 other bicyclists, for a seven-day benefit ride to L.A. Team co-captain Christine Shaff introduces some of the Cal riders, in the first of a series of report-backs throughout the coming week.
(04 June)

Enrollment in summer school projected to be the highest ever
Enrollment in summer school at UC Berkeley is shaping up to be a record-breaker. More than 13,800 UC Berkeley students, international scholars and independent adult learners are signing up for courses ranging from first-year reading and composition to "The Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr.," and thousands more are expected to enroll.
(24 May)

Invoke a little moxie
This is the text of Tiffany Shlain's keynote address at UC Berkeley's Commencement Convocation on Sunday, May 16, 2010.
(17 May)

A call for "moxie" and compassion marks Commencement
From the traditional to the outrageous, a colorful procession of more than 1,200 graduating seniors – many clutching their smartphones and some even tweeting – marched into UC Berkeley's Walter A. Haas Jr., Pavilion on Sunday to celebrate a hard-earned rite of passage.
(17 May)

Array of speakers to address graduating students
Graduation season at UC Berkeley is under way, and is expected to draw dozens of erudite speakers to the campus through the end of May. Among those imparting wisdom to thousands of graduating students will be scholar and activist Angela Davis; Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, the former mayor of Mexico City; Google chief economist Hal Varian and green jobs champion Cecilia Estolano.
(11 May)

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)

Top graduating senior's life trajectory is amazing
It's fitting that the life of Josh Biddle, UC Berkeley's top graduating senior, would read like the lyrics of "Amazing Grace." During high school in Marin County, Calif., and at a subsequent boarding program for troubled teens in Colorado, he was lost. But while driving a tractor in his Great-aunt Velma's farm, finding his niche in science at City College of San Francisco and transferring to UC Berkeley, he was found. This Sunday, he will share his story at Commencement Convocation.
(10 May)

Uptick in job recruitment could help UC Berkeley grads
Nearly 100 companies and organizations as varied as Amazon.com, Yelp, the Peace Corps and the FBI will be recruiting at UC Berkeley’s “Just in Time” job fair tomorrow (Wednesday, April 21). At least 1,000 graduating seniors are expected to attend.
(20 April)

Census blitz next week aims for complete count in student residence halls at Berkeley
Early next week, thousands of UC Berkeley students will stand up and be counted, in the 2010 U.S. census. The civic-minded, even fun, action will unfold the evenings of April 19 and 20 in student residence halls, where more than 6,000 students live. The upcoming student census blitz is the culmination of months of organizing by the UC Complete Count Committee, or UC4, a unique town-gown-federal coalition.
(15 April)

More than 12,900 offered admission after competitive application period
More than 12,900 high school students who applied to the University of California, Berkeley, during a highly competitive application period, have been offered freshman admission for the 2010-2011 school year, campus officials announced today (Wednesday, April 14). A record number of student applicants, more than 50,000 of them, applied during a period when dwindling state funding for higher education forced the campus to limit enrollment for California residents.
(14 April)

For prospective undergrads, student-authored Golden Bears Blog could just be the X factor in choosing Cal
From student life and housing to academics to extracurricular activities, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions' student bloggers capture the nuances and richness of life at Berkeley.
(05 April)

UC Berkeley Students volunteer in underserved communities over spring break
Nearly 100 UC Berkeley students are participating in service-learning trips this week through the Cal Corps Public Service Center’s Alternative Breaks program. Seven trips spread throughout California and in New Orleans, each consisting of 12-14 student volunteers, are taking place March 20-26.
(24 March)

Campus to expand reading and composition curriculum
UC Berkeley plans to significantly increase funding to support reading and composition courses, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer announced March 10. The intent is to ensure that all undergraduates can complete this important requirement before entering their junior year.
(11 March)

Student parent, born in an Andean village, aims to go global in defense of the dispossessed
Consuelo Bustinza’s journey has taken her, so far, from a tiny Andean village to a place she describes as "a big ocean of knowledge and opportunities" where one learns to "solve big problems," UC Berkeley. Diminutive, energetic, and startlingly self-possessed, the campus senior aspires to one day be a voice for the dispossessed in the international arena.
(15 January)

Two of three students stranded in Haiti to help with relief efforts
Three UC Berkeley graduate students in Haiti are safe in the wake of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that ravaged Port-au-Prince and its environs on Tuesday, killing tens of thousands of people in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
(14 January)

Low-income high-achievers lift their sights at Berkeley
For more than a decade, SAGE Scholars Program has helped low-income Berkeley students learn how to navigate their way through the institution and into successful careers and graduate studies.
(14 January)

Fall 2010 applications up, officials use new outreach tools
More than 50,000 student applicants, a record number, have applied for admission to the University of California, Berkeley's fall 2010 freshman class, after campus admissions officials visited not only high schools but also chat rooms to connect with promising students.
(14 January)

Dining halls join the trayless trend
Trays in Berkeley's dining commons have gone the way of panty raids and letter sweaters — they're a thing of the past. As of the start of spring semester this week, Berkeley is joining the trend sweeping college campuses nationwide and eliminating most of the black plastic trays used in the Crossroads, Foothill, Clark Kerr, and Café 3 dining halls.
(11 January)

Budget crisis prompts LAEP students to take a lesson from the Great Depression
Landscape architecture and environmental planning students respond to the ongoing budget crisis by putting their expertise — and muscles — to work at local schools, a park, and on the campus.
(04 December)

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)

Hunger gets a seat at Berkeley's table
To bring home the issue of world hunger, the dining commons in Berkeley's Unit 3 residence hall held a most unusual dinner Thursday night: Just rice and water on the floor for most attending. It was all part of Hunger Awareness Week at Cal.
(13 November)

At town hall on campus response to budget crisis, students raise concerns and questions
More than 300 students turned out Thursday evening for a town hall meeting with Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and other senior administrators. Their common concern: the state budget emergency and the campus's response to draconian budget cuts that the crisis has brought.
(06 November)

Berkeley scholars' adventures in the blogosphere
A growing number of campus scholars are using Web 2.0 blogging tools to reach a larger audience, create intellectual community, and be more proactive in relation to the media.
(28 October)

Picture Yourself at Berkeley reaches out to to connect with prospective students
A new online service offered by the campus's Office of Undergraduate Admissions helps prospective students envision themselves as a member of the UC Berkeley community.
(28 September)

Pollan's public-interest prediction
This semester's On the Same Page program, aimed at focusing the attention of incoming L&S undergrads on a single work or creator, is built around Professor of Journalism Michael Pollan's game-changing take on industrial agriculture and America's food systems, The Omnivore's Dilemma.
(10 September)

New faces on Dwinelle Plaza
Portraits of students who are benefiting from privately funded scholarships and fellowships smile out at passersby, as the now-familiar "Thanks to Berkeley…" billboard gets a one-year facelift.
(10 September)

Foreign scholars say 'yes' to American English pronunciation course
In a popular class organized by the Visiting Scholar and Postdoc Affairs program, international scholars at Berkeley hone their ability to hear and create sounds not found in their native languages. The goal is help them prepare for their professional careers and the job market.
(04 September)

Fourth member of "Old Blue" family to live in the same residence hall room
Perhaps it's time to call Norton Hall's Room 414 at UC Berkeley, "The Eidelson Room." This Sunday (Aug. 23), 18-year-old Aaron Eidelson of Santa Barbara will move into the very same residence hall room that his father Jon and brothers Michael and Joel ate, slept, studied and occasionally partied in during their undergraduate years at UC Berkeley. Room 414 is a double room in Unit 3 that overlooks Durant Street and has a corner view of the landmark Campanile.
(19 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)

Money rocks (and raps) in economics grad students' music videos
A group of graduate students in the Berkeley economics department, calling themselves the Metrics Gang, relate the trials and tribulations of their doctoral quest in four popular online singles.
(13 July)

Berkeley civil-engineering students take title in concrete-canoe competition
A team of Berkeley civil-engineering students won the 22nd annual National Concrete Canoe Competition at the contest's June 11-13 finals in Tuscaloosa, Ala. June 11-13. It was the campus's fifth title in the remarkable battle of the boats, sometimes called the America's Cup of civil engineering.
(19 June)

A sunny day for graduates — and the many who helped them
Under sunny skies at the Greek Theatre, graduates from the class of 2009 take a clear-eyed look at an uncertain future.
(26 May)

Sights and speeches from Commencement Convocation 2009
A sunny afternoon and inspiring speakers drew thousands of graduates and their families to the Greek Theatre to celebrate the accomplishments of the Class of 2009.
(22 May)

University Medal finalists make discoveries at Berkeley about themselves and the world
This year, five students — Jordan Anaya, Sonia Fleury, Lara Palanjian, Zoe Sima Silverman, and William Vega — were finalists for the University Medal, given to Berkeley's top graduating senior. These five stellar students take time out to answer questions about their time at Cal and their plans for life beyond Berkeley.
(14 May)

Campus helps graduating students cope with bleak job market
With the Class of 2009 understandably worried about employment prospects after graduation next month, UC Berkeley is helping seniors prepare for a job market riddled with layoffs and hiring freezes.
(15 April)

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)

Almost 13,000 high school students offered admission to UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley, announced today (Tuesday, April 7) that it has offered freshman admission for the 2009-2010 school year to almost 13,000 high school students, including several nationally-ranked debaters, a world-champion figure skater, and a set of triplets.
(07 April)

A new garden grows at Berkeley
A group of students has been tilling and planting a conspicuous space in the heart of campus . . . to grow their own food, and to show others how it’s done.
(19 March)

How are Berkeley students faring in hard times?
Many UC Berkeley students currently find themselves looking for cheaper housing, worrying about debt, or (especially if they're about to graduate) stressing about their job prospects. Eleven undergrads discuss how the economic downturn is affecting them. (With audio.)
(16 March)

What's Berkeley's hottest minor?
The global poverty and practice minor introduced two years ago appeals to the activist impulses of today’s Berkeley student. As one of them says, “Programs like this have given us a chance to get out there and actually do something.”
(12 March)

Newspaper on a mission
Daily Cal editor Bryan Thomas is working hard to keep the campus’s student paper alive in the present while positioning it for the future.
(11 March)

Fighting global poverty is fastest-growing minor
Students majoring in everything from engineering to English are signing up at the UC Berkeley, for the campus's fastest-growing minor - "Global Poverty & Practice" - a veritable magnet for a "Yes We Can" generation eager to get out of the virtual world and into the real one.
(10 March)

Musical video, 'The Nano Song,' a megahit on YouTube
When the American Chemical Society put out the call for short videos explaining nanotechnology to the non-scientist, a group from Berkeley pulled together an orchestrated score, a classically trained singer, and a gaggle of dancing puppets. Public response to their contest entry has been anything but small — with attention from science, technology, and social-networking websites, and nearly 300,000 hits on YouTube.
(06 March)

Paint, video, Etch A Sketch — this artist's media are varied and many
Grad-student artist Miguel Arzabe explores his complicated appreciation of nature using a wide assortment of media — paint, video, laser etchings, online social-networking tools, public enactments and installations, and the Etch A Sketch.
(03 March)

'Pockets of intimacy' for undergrads
"Teaching freshmen taught me," says a faculty member who has organized more than 20 seminars for lower-division students since 1997. He's part of a program that offers 'meaningful intellectual contact' to the campus's youngest scholars.
(26 February)

Student photos of foreclosed home win Lange Fellowship
Photographs of possessions left in a Vallejo, Calif., home following foreclosure, an all-too-familiar contemporary event across the nation, have earned journalism student Rhyen Coombs the University of California, Berkeley's 2009 Dorothea Lange Fellowship.
(25 February)

Two Berkeley seniors earn prestigious Armed Forces med-school scholarships
A pair of students in Berkeley's Navy ROTC program — along with just 10 other students nationwide — have been chosen to receive a military scholarship that provides tuition and living expenses for the medical school of one's choice, in return for service as a U.S. military doctor upon completion of one's M.D. (With audio)
(25 February)

Record number of students apply to UC Berkeley, but growth in applications slows
More than 48,600 high school students have applied for admission to UC Berkeley's fall 2009 freshman class, reflecting another record year for the number of applications filed, campus officials announced today (Friday, Jan. 23). However, administrators at Berkeley and across the University of California system noted a slowdown in the volume of applications submitted for this fall when compared to fall 2008 applications.
(23 January)

Where future doctors learn the rudiments of aging from elders
In a course on aging at Berkeley, UC premed and medical students collaborate with seniors to present literary works on growing old — and to become more sensitive health practitioners down the line. (With video.)
(12 January)