Berkeleyan

News Briefs

13 September 2006

Campus memorial service set

On Friday, Sept. 29, the campus will hold its fifth annual memorial to remember those of its own who passed away in the preceding year. More than 60 members of the community - among them faculty and emeriti, students, staff, and staff retirees - will be honored. The ceremony, which will include a reading of the names of the deceased, remarks by Chancellor Birgeneau, music, and poetry, will be held from 12:10 to 12:50 p.m. at the flagpole west of California Hall. It is open to all to attend.

The names of those to be honored are now online (newscenter.berkeley.edu/goto/memoriam06). If any member of the campus community who died in the past year has been omitted, contact Helena Weiss-Duman (hwd@berkeley.edu) by 5 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 27, so that he or she can be remembered at the memorial service. Contact her, as well, if there are errors in the information provided in the online listing.

Nominate a Cal alum for the Haas Public Service Award

Nominations are being accepted through Friday, Oct. 6 for the 2006 Peter E. Haas Public Service Award, which recognizes a Berkeley graduate for voluntary service in one of four areas: community service (including social service), healthcare, environmental work, or education. The award includes a cash prize of $20,000, an additional $20,000 to be donated to a charity of the recipient's choice, and an engraved medallion. For information or a nomination form, visit www.urel.berkeley.edu/haas or call 643-7003.

Learn about UC fundraising careers

Campus employees who are interested in - or just curious about - careers in fundraising are invited to a Thursday, Sept. 28, panel discussion on campus opportunities in the field. Co-sponsored by University Relations and the Office of Human Resources, the program will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Alumni House. Campus fundraising professionals will provide an overview of the field as a career option on campus, the range of positions here, and the skills required for each stage of a fundraising career. The discussion should help attendees identify the transferable skills they might have for pursuing a job in development.

To register, go to hrweb.berkeley.edu/ice/home and search the catalog for "Fundraising Career Panel."

Campus posts second consecutive year of record fundraising

For the second year in a row, the campus has set a new record for private support, reporting recently that alumni, parents, and friends contributed $347.6 million in the 2005-06 fiscal year.

The total breaks the previous record of $318.3 million set in 2004-05. The number of gifts to Berkeley also established a new benchmark at 87,803, up from 80,234 gifts contributed the previous year.

The $347.6 million includes contributions to benefit students and faculty directly, advancing a wide range of research, as well as boosting financial aid for undergraduate students.

Notable gifts and pledges for the fiscal year, which ended June 30, include:

. $25 million, from Ann and Gordon Getty, to support campuswide teaching and research in cutting-edge biomedical science
. $25 million, pledged anonymously, to the Haas School of Business
. $15 million, including a $5 million challenge grant, from Richard Blum, for the Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies
. $8.8 million from the Henry B. and Elsie Clay Fund to support undergraduate financial aid.

Latin American political leader Ricardo Lagos to speak

The former Chilean head of state, Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar, will give a half-hour public lecture, followed by a question-and-answer session, on "Challenges for Latin America" at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18, in Bechtel Engineering Center's Sibley Auditorium. Widely regarded as one of Latin America's most important political leaders, Lagos served as president of Chile from 2000 to March 2006 (succeeded by fellow Socialist Michelle Bachelet); he left office with a 75 percent approval rating.

Tickets will be distributed to the public on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 5 p.m. the evening of the event. The talk will also be webcast live (and archived) on webcast.berkeley.edu. For information, see clas.berkeley.edu.

Discounts offered for six-play series Suburban Motel

Theater, Dance and Performance Studies opens its 2006-07 main-stage season on Friday, Sept. 29, with the first evening of one-acts from George F. Walker's Suburban Motel - a series of darkly comic plays about desperate characters who have fallen through the cracks of society. The department is offering a deep discount for series tickets: $24 for all three performances (each performance featuring two one-acts). To order series tickets, go to theater.berkeley.edu/CurrentSeason/tickets and download the order form, which is due by Friday, Sept. 22, in the department office.

Poet Lisa Robertson to read Sept. 27

The campus's 2006-07 Roberta C. Holloway lecturer in the Practice of Poetry, Lisa Robertson, will read from her work on Thursday, Sept. 27, as part of the Holloway Series in Poetry. She is the author of five books of poetry, including The Weather, Debbie: An Epic, and The Men. Originally from Canada, she now lives in France, where she teaches at the American University in Paris. Her reading is a 7:30 p.m. in the Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler. For information on the Holloway poetry series, see holloway.english.berkeley.edu/.

Safety Counts guide available from UCPD

The UC Police Department has issued its 2006-07 campus safety guide, Safety Counts. The annual guide includes crime-prevention and safety tips; campus crime statistics for 2003 through 2005; emergency-preparedness information; emergency contact numbers; the text of many campus rules, regulations, and policies; and a pull-out, pocket-size safety guide.

For a printed copy of the guide, call the UCPD at 642-6760 or pick one up in the department's main lobby (1 Sproul Hall, basement level, south entrance). To access and download the guide online, see police.berkeley.edu/safetycounts/2006_2007.

Sept. 25 talk on evolving notions of the 'good mother'

Radical changes in the way U.S. society, and women themselves, view the task of mothering will be explored on Monday, Sept. 25, when the Berkeley-UCSF Colloquium in History of Science, Technology, and Medicine kicks off its fall 2006 series. Professor Rima Apple of the University of Wisconsin, Madison - who studies the history of home economics, women's health and healthcare, and motherhood in the U.S. -will speak on "Scientific Motherhood: How Women Learned to Be Modern Mothers," at 4 p.m. in 140 Barrows. For details on the fall series - exploring the history of stem cells, electronic music, intellectual-property law, and other topics - visit ohst.berkeley.edu/events/events.htm.

For the record . . .

In last week's article about Ananya Roy's fall course on global poverty, we described Roy as an assistant professor of city and regional planning; in fact, she was recently promoted to associate professor. In the same article, we failed to note that Roy's term as acting faculty director of the campus study-abroad program office ended with the spring term; the current director is Khatharya Um, an associate professor of Asian American studies.

We also misstated the volume number of last week's Berkeleyan; it was the fourth issue of Vol. 35, not Vol. 34.