News briefs

17 April 2001 |

Cal basketball players score big in academics
A trio of Cal basketball players — proving they’re as smart off the court as on — have been named to this year’s Pac-10 All-Academic Men’s Basketball team.

Ryan Forehan-Kelly, Dennis Gates and Moran Lingle filled three of the five spots on the First Team. A fourth player, Donte Smith, received an honorable mention.

This is only the second time in campus history that Cal basketball players have made First Team academic status.

Last fall, the football team received 16 nods, including four on the First Team, the most of any Pac-10 school.

Apply now for 2002-03 Fulbright awards
Applications are currently being accepted for the 2002-03 U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program.

The deadline for applications is May 1, 2001 for the Fulbright distinguished chairs program; June 1 for the alumni initiatives award program; Aug. 1 for lecturing, lecturing/research and research awards worldwide; Nov. 1 for international administrators programs in Germany, Japan and Korea; and Jan. 1, 2002 for NATO Advanced research fellowships and institutional grants.

The Fulbright program sends 800 scholars and professionals each year to lecture or conduct research in more than 140 countries. It is open to U.S. faculty and professionals who are United States citizens.

Applications are available online at www.cies.org or in person at the Graduate Fellowships Office, 318 Sproul Hall, 642-0672.

Researcher suggests initiatives hobble minority progress
Four voter-approved propositions passed in the 1990s were orchestrated to hobble the social and economic progress of the California’s growing minority population, social welfare professor Jewelle Taylor Gibbs maintains in her new book, “Preserving Privilege: California Politics, Propositions and People of Color” (Praeger Publications, 2001).

The cumulative impact of these propositions, said Gibbs in her book, has been to impede the progress of many people of color, with the greatest impact felt by Hispanic and African-American populations.

“Preserving Privilege” provides a look at the collective outcome of the four initiatives: “Three Strikes and You’re Out”(Proposition 184), passed in 1994; the “Save Our State” initiative (Proposition 187), also passed in 1994, that withheld education and medical care from undocumented immigrant children and their families; the California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209), which dismantled affirmative action in 1996; and “English for the Children” (Proposition 227), passed in 1998 to limit bilingual school programs.

See www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2001/04/09_props.html for the complete story.

Family fun April 28 at Berkeley Bay Festival
The city of Berkeley’s annual Berkeley Bay Festival, a day of activities devoted to environmental education and boating, is slated for April 28 at the Berkeley Marina.

The Berkeley Bay Festival begins at 11 a.m. in Marina Square and runs until 4 p.m. The day’s line-up of free entertainment and activities includes sailing provided by the Cal Sailing Club, an ascent on the Cal Adventures climbing wall, on-board visits to an historic sailing barge and a Coast Guard vessel, naturalist talks and tide pool tours, cajun music and sea shanties, and more.

For information, including public transportation and parking options, see www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/parks/marina/marinaexp/bayfest1.htm or call 644-8623.

PlanetOut names campus gay friendly
PlanetOut, a leading gay and lesbian Web site, recently named Berkeley among the 10 most welcoming colleges for “queer and questioning” students.

The Web site asked its subscribers to “tell us what’s queer and what’s not” about their current schools and alma maters.

Berkeley ranked 7th on PlanetOut’s list of the “Queer 50.”

Gay-friendly features cited by the Web site included Berkeley’s minor in queer studies, its numerous gay and lesbian groups, the LGBT Resources Center, the Oscar Wilde House gay/lesbian co-op, and the inclusion of sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy.

See www.planetout.com/pno for details about the rankings. From the Families section under the blue banner “Inside PlanetOut,” choose “Best Colleges.”

Publish scholarly work at campus press service
Graduate students, faculty, research associates, visiting scholars and colleagues in academic institutions around the world are invited to publish their scholarly work on national, state and local government, politics, public policy and public administration at Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies Press.

The institute’s books, monographs, working papers and bimonthly newsletters are edited for a wide-ranging audience that includes academics, elected officials, journalists and public administrators, as well as the general public. With more than 54 current titles, IGS Press publishes original research, analysis, essays and edited volumes.

For information, contact Jerry Lubenow — jlubenow@uclink.berkeley.edu — the institute’s director of publications.