News Briefs
28 January 2009
David Kennedy to give Jefferson Lecture Feb. 3
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy will deliver the annual Jefferson Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 4:10 p.m. in the Lipman Room, on the 8th floor of Barrows Hall. Kennedy's lecture will be entitled "An Invitation to Struggle: The Constitution, the Military, and Political Accountability."
As a historian with an academic background in American studies, Kennedy, the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford, is known for sharp analysis of American history through the multiple lenses of culture, economics, and politics. Recently his research interests have touched on the relevant issue of the power dynamics among the nation's governing branches, and the resulting social and political consequences.
Kennedy is the author of several influential books and articles of American history, among them Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1981), a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945, which won the Pulitzer in 2000. Kennedy also co-authored the sixth through 14th editions of the widely used U. S. hstory textbook The American Pageant: A History of the Republic.
Teaching grants for 2008-09 remain available
Two teaching-grants programs are still available to Berkeley faculty for the 2008-09 academic year.
The Instructional Minigrant Program provides rapid access to modest funds of up to $1,000 for small-scale projects to improve existing courses, develop new courses, evaluate instruction, and/or assess curricular needs.
Instructional Improvement Grants provide funds (up to $4,000) for innovative projects that will directly and significantly affect teaching and learning, such as developing materials for new and existing courses and developing new modes of instruction. All faculty members, including lecturers, are eligible to apply.
The grants programs are sponsored jointly by the Academic Senate's Committee on Teaching and the Office of Educational Development. Both grant programs receive, review, and act upon applications on a rolling basis throughout the academic year.
Guidelines and applications for both programs are available online. For more information, contact Steve Tollefson in the Office of Educational Development (642-0875).
Faculty Research Lectures: call for nominations
The Faculty Research Lectureship is the highest honor the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate accords its members. Each year the division selects two scholars to deliver a public lecture, hosted by the chancellor — both to recognize distinguished faculty whose research has changed the shape of their discipline, and to bring their innovative work to the attention of the entire campus community.
Nominations of future Faculty Research Lecturers are being accepted through Friday, Feb. 6. Nominees should be recognized as among the leaders of their respective disciplines both within the United States and abroad, and representative of the full diversity of Berkeley's academic contributions.
Nominations should include a two- to three-page letter setting forth the nominee's qualifications; his or her current curriculum vita; a bibliography limited to 10 items; two or three letters from experts in the nominee's field from both inside and outside the campus community; and one or two examples of the nominee's work, to illustrate its distinctive quality.
Other guidelines apply; for further information, contact Diane Sprouse.
Survey Research Center turns 50
Berkeley's Survey Research Center celebrates its 50th anniver-sary in February with a reunion of — among others — all of its top leaders during its half-century history, from Charles Glock (1958-67) through current director Henry Brady. The gathering will also feature an overview of the center's work, which has included pioneering research on AIDS, anti-Semitism, water quality, racism, childhood leukemia, welfare, maternal and infant health, disability, and presidential elections, and the development of new methods and frontiers for doing surveys.
The public celebration begins at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 12, in Barrows Hall's Lipman Room, with a reception to follow at 5:30 p.m.
Yudof proposes gift-assistance 'floor' for undergrad applicants
UC President Mark Yudof will bring to next week's meeting of the Board of Regents a proposal, known as the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, that establishes a minimum level of gift assistance for financially needy California undergraduates with incomes below the state household median of $60,000 per year.
Under the proposal, undergraduates in their first four years of attendance at UC — or two for California Community College transfer students — would receive enough scholarship and grant assistance to at least fully cover their systemwide UC fees if they have incomes below the state household median and meet other basic eligibility requirements for need-based financial aid. The plan will potentially extend to half of all California households.
Implementation of the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan would cost UC an estimated $3.1 million per year and would not reduce funding available for UC's existing aid programs. This cost increase would be funded by increasing the amount of new fee revenue that UC sets aside for financial aid from 33 to 36 percent. The program would be reviewed annually, and its continuation beyond 2009-10 for both new and enrolled students would be subject to the university's determination of financial feasibility.