Berkeley in the News Archive

The links to the stories summarized on this page are time sensitive, so stories might no longer be online at that URL. We also include links to the original source publication itself.

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

1. Federal maneuverings revive controversial immigration bill for youth
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)

Berkeley -- Nobody but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can know for sure why the Nevada Democrat is trying to bring the long-debated DREAM Act to a vote on Capitol Hill this month, but maybe Krsna Avila had something to do with it.

The UC Davis graduate from Oakland has spent years fighting to pass the DREAM Act, which would give legal status to tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants -- including Avila -- brought to the country illegally before they were 16.

Avila and other California student activists have lobbied politicians and university leaders and outed themselves as illegal immigrants to raise awareness. Some risked arrest and deportation to stage sit-ins at the congressional offices of Reid and otherlawmakers this summer. At UC BERKELEY, dozens met with CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU last month, gaining the support of a friend in a high place.

"We need a breakthrough in politics for undocumented students," Birgeneau said. "We cannot afford to waste this level of talent when we're facing these kinds of challenges in California."

Reid has proposed adding the bill as an amendment to an annual defense authorization bill; a vote is expected Tuesday whether to add the amendment. Reid may also try to attach another controversial amendment -- the repeal of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy on gay armed forces members – to the same defense bill. If added to the defense bill, the amendments would be voted on later this month...

[This story also appeared in San Jose Mercury News, and the Oakland Tribune] Full Story

2. Code That Tracks Users’ Browsing Prompts Lawsuits
New York Times

September 21, 2010

Sandra Person Burns used to love browsing and shopping online. Until she realized she was being tracked by software on her computer that she thought she had erased.

Ms. Person Burns, 67, a retired health care executive who lives in Jackson, Miss., said she is wary of online shopping: “Instead of going to Amazon, I’m going to the local bookstore.”

Ms. Person Burns is one of a growing number of consumers who are taking legal action against companies that track computer users’ activity on the Internet. At issue is a little-known piece of computer code placed on hard drives by the Flash program from Adobe when users watch videos on popular Web sites like YouTube and Hulu.

The technology, so-called Flash cookies, is bringing an increasing number of federal lawsuits against media and technology companies and growing criticism from some privacy advocates who say the software may also allow the companies to create detailed profiles of consumers without their knowledge....

CHRIS JAY HOOFNAGLE [DIRECTOR INFORMATION PRIVACY PROGRAMS], 36, one of the authors of a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, STUDY about Internet privacy and Flash cookies that has been used in several of the legal filings, said the recent spate of suits pointed to a weakness in federal rules governing online privacy.

“Consumer privacy actions have largely failed,” Mr. Hoofnagle said. The lawsuits, he added, “actually are moving the policy ball forward in the ways that activists are not.”... Full Story

3. High-tech innovation now a two-way street
The National (Abu Dhabi)

September 21, 2010

Throughout history, diaspora have reflected economic or political disruptions, ultimately enriching the receiving countries. California’s Silicon Valley’s dynamic churn is the latest example, just as many Chinese and Indian migrants are returning home, ready to lay a new foundation for technological innovation and economic growth.

For some Chinese, immigration to the US reflected despair in the wake of Tiananmen; for others, it represented economic opportunity at a time of economic stagnation. Indians left for similar reasons, although less political: India’s economy offered little future for the talented and ambitious, while opportunities abroad promised a better life. Seeking jobs and education, many of the best and brightest came to Silicon Valley.

Powerful push-pull dynamics made California a draw. Its universities offered world-class education. Programmes in engineering and computer science drew Indians in particular. This coincided with the run-up to the dot-com boom and was accelerated by the Y2K scare, which generated huge demand for programmers to fix the predicted problem. The gap was filled by importing engineers, primarily from India.

By 1986, almost 60 per cent of Indian Institute of Technology engineering graduates were migrating overseas, mostly to Silicon Valley. RESEARCH BY ANNALEE SAXENIAN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA’S BERKELEY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS found that by 1990 a third of the San Francisco Bay Area’s science and engineering workforce was foreign born. A quarter of its engineers, some 28,000, were Indian, more than half of whom held advanced degrees. By 1998, as the tech boom neared its peak, 774 of the 11,443 tech firms started since 1980 had Indian chief executives. Between 1995 and 2005, 15 per cent of Silicon Valley start-ups were launched by Indians – the largest number for any immigrant group... Full Story

4. California's genetic education
Geneticist Jasper Rine reflects on a controversial gene-testing programme.
Nature

September 21, 2010

An ethical storm hit the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, earlier this year after it invited more than 5,000 incoming students to receive a personal genetic analysis of three genes associated with how they metabolize lactose, alcohol and folic acid.

Privacy fears led to a public outcry and a bill in the California legislature to block the programme. That effort failed, but the California Department of Public Health has since ruled that federal law prohibits the university from giving students their individual results.

Last week, JASPER RINE, A GENETICIST AND ONE OF THE PROJECT'S LEADERS, went as far as the department would allow by presenting the amalgamated test results of the 724 student participants. Nature News asks Rine to reflect on the programme, the controversy and what remains to be resolved.

Why was Berkeley so keen to push the boundaries in the first place?

Next-generation DNA-sequencing developments will push the cost of DNA sequencing down to the point that anyone can afford to have complete knowledge of their personal gene variants. Yet there is a gulf between that knowledge and an understanding of what the genetic variations mean. It is the responsibility of the great universities of the world to confront major societal challenges such as this so that our students can exercise good judgement, informed by facts... Full Story

5. On the GreenBeat: Clean energy bill sees revival, GM partners with ABB, SolarCity teams with Telsa
GreenBeat

September 21, 2010

A clean-energy bill sees revival on Capitol Hill. A bipartisan group of senators will propose legislation that would set a goal of 15 percent renewable energy by 2021. The bill would require utilities to start drawing from renewable energy sources starting in 2012. It’s set to be voted on after the Nov. 2 elections.

GM announced today it will be collaborating with electrical giant ABB to develop secondary uses for the Volt battery. The companies will develop a pilot program that will research potential cost-effective solutions for the battery once they have been recycled from the Volt. Potential uses include renewable energy storage, grid load management and back-up power supply. Nissan made a similar announcement last week, saying it would enter a joint venture with Sumimoto to explore uses for used Leaf batteries.

SolarCity will team with Tesla and the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, to research battery storage for the solar market using a $1.7 million grant from the California Public Utilities Commission and California Solar Initiative. The project will look into “photovoltaic storage,” in which batteries (in the case, Tesla’s) can extend the use of solar energy for users by storing excess production during the day, then releasing it after the sun goes down. “Battery storage will be an important component in the mass adoption of PV, it will make solar electricity a more predictable energy source,” said SolarCity COO Peter Rive... Full Story

6. Rich People Pity Party
Mother Jones

September 21, 2010

I almost feel sorry for Todd Henderson. Last week, the University of Chicago Law School professor took to his blog to complain [1] about how he and his wife, who make north of $250,000 a year combined, are going to suffer under the Obama tax plan. (Under Obama's plan, marginal tax rates for couples who make more than $250,000 would return to their Clinton-era levels. Those couples' overall tax burden would still be lower than it was during the Clinton years. But nevermind all that.) I'm sure Henderson didn't expect that post to lead to his 15 minutes of (internet) fame. But it did.

Prof. Henderson's complaints drew the attention of BERKELEY PUBLIC POLICY PROFESSOR (AND BLOGGER) MICHAEL O'HARE, who called Henderson's post a "truly amazing pasticcio of mendacity, ignorance, and small-minded cupidity." O'Hare's post inspired BRAD DELONG [UC BERKELEY ECONOMICS PROFESSOR] to weigh in with a multi-thousand-word smackdown of Henderson. DeLong's post, in turn, earned Henderson an attack from no less than Paul Krugman. I doubt that Henderson expected his post would bring him under fire from former Treasury department official and a Nobel prize-winning economist... Full Story

7. Blog: Law Professor's Blog Post Sparks Controversy Over Why The Rich Don't Feel 'Rich'
Huffington Post

September 21, 2010

UPDATE: Citing a "firestorm" of "lies and misinformation," Henderson vowed on his blog this morning to quit blogging. "I misunderstood the technology, and the consequences are devastating for me personally," he writes. "I am sad to leave, but my family has to come first, and my blogging has caused them incalculable damage." Henderson told Business Insider that his family is "on the verge of disintegrating."

Law professor Todd Henderson's now-infamous blog entry about the mindset of the rich has incited such an uproar that he felt he needed to delete it.

An "electronic lynch mob," he wrote yesterday, "caused untold damage to me personally." But despite the apparent hate-mail, the original post, which UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, ECONOMICS PROFESSOR BRADFORD DELONG re-posted for the sake of the "conversation," has also inspired a legitimate debate about an idea that typically makes people either furious or embarrassed. In short, the rich don't feel "rich."...

The responses, some of which DeLong has posted on his blog, are largely aggressive. LAW PROFESSOR MICHAEL O'HARE mockingly compares Henderson to someone in "scuffed Gucci loafers and tattered Armani," living in a "million-dollar hovel." But others are more thoughtful.

After first refraining from comment, DeLong made the point that those who are indeed rich don't feel that way. Here's Delong

Instead, Mr. Xxxx Xxxxxxxxx looks up. Of the 100 people richer than he is, fully ten have more than four times his income. And he knows of one person with 20 times his income. He knows who the really rich are, and they have ten times his income: They have not $450,000 a year. They have $4.5 million a year. And, to him, they are in a different world... Full Story

8. Cal rugby hopes to survive budget scrum
San Francisco Chronicle

September 21, 2010

The most successful sports program in CAL history is fearful it may be downgraded to club status.

The MEN'S RUGBY TEAM, winner of 25 national championships since 1980, is particularly anxious as the entire athletic department braces for anticipated cuts related to both budget concerns and gender-equity requirements.

COACH JACK CLARK, with 21 national titles during his tenure at Berkeley, is rallying support for rugby to retain its varsity status. He has written to and met with ATHLETIC DIRECTOR SANDY BARBOUR, and a number of major donors to both the program and the university at large have contacted the AD as well.

An announcement on expected changes to the athletic department is anticipated early next week. Barbour was not available for comment Monday.

"If you're not a sport that's required by the Pac-10, those options are on the table. That's fair and accurate," UNIVERSITY SPOKESMAN DAN MOGULOF said. "We're certainly in the last stage of the decision-making process. Nothing is final yet."...

A July report by a chancellor's committee on intercollegiate sports presented the idea of reducing the 27 varsity sports by five to seven as one option among several, although it did not specifically recommend the university do so. Full Story

9. Tech Museum chooses honorees for annual awards
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)

September 21, 2010

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan will be the global humanitarian honoree at this year's Tech Awards ceremony, held in early November to spotlight the work of 15 social entrepreneurs who use low-cost technology to change lives around the world, the Tech Museum will announce today.

The 15 finalists, or laureates, were chosen from about 1,000 nominations across 60 countries. Five of them, each representing a separate category such as education or the environment, will be awarded a prize of $50,000...

Friess said the main purpose of the awards event, now in its 10th year and dubbed the Nobel Prize of tech, is to expose social entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley's network of companies and venture capitalists. It provides a weeklong crash course on marketing
techniques, how to give an "elevator pitch" to potential funders and on improving business models. The experience has helped a number of laureates garner millions of dollars in funding and nationwide publicity, Friess said...

the 2010 tech awards laureates...
Nokia Health Award
DANIEL A. FLETCHER [ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, BIOENGINEERING], BASED AT UC BERKELEY, created CellScope, a technology that combines diagnostic
microscopy with cell phones to expand access to basic health care in remote regions of India and Uganda. Website: http://blumcenter.berkeley.edu/telemicroscopy-disease-diagnosis...

[This story also appeared in Oakland Tribune] Full Story

10. UCSF wins $15.4M grant in step toward 'smart cells'
San Francisco Business Times (*requires registration)

September 21, 2010

UCSF will use a $15.4 million, five-year National Institutes of Health grant to set up one of two new national centers that could lay the foundation for developing “smart cells” designed to carry out specific tasks in the body.

Wendell Lim, a University of California, San Francisco, professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology, will lead the UCSF arm of the National Centers for Systems Biology.

Lim’s team will work with a second, separately funded center at UC San Diego.

Working together, the two centers will try to better understand how cells use biological circuits to sense and adjust to their surroundings and how cells respond to stress like toxins and metabolic imbalances. That could lead to scientists engineering so-called smart cells to handle specific tasks, like attacking disease.

The UCSF team includes Chao Tang, Nevan Krogan, Han Li, Chris Voigt and Alma Burlingame as well as JASPER RINE [PROFESSOR OF GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY] OF UC BERKELEY. Full Story

11. Blog: Criminal Justice Conversations Podcast with David Onek - Episode #14: Office of Justice Programs Ass't Att'y Gen, Laurie Robinson
San Francisco Chronicle/KALW News

September 20, 2010

In Episode #14, Laurie Robinson, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice, discusses bridging the gap between researchers and practitioners, the promise of problem-solving courts, strengthening the indigent defense system, partnering with state and local law enforcement, and more.

Robinson Interview Highlights

Robinson on Making Research Accessible to Practitioners and Policymakers

"I've been frustrated for years by the fact that we have a lot of the results of our research in academic journal articles, and yet busy police detectives and busy practitioners of all stripes don't have time to go and read those journal articles and synthesize the results and figure out what that means for their day-to-day practice or policy. A Capital Hill staffer racing around does not have time to read that material and distill it for his or her boss. So we're focusing on how to get information out to the field in a format that is accessible and useful for practitioners and policymakers."... Full Story

12. Robert Reich's Blog: Warning Bells of Deflation
Flat consumer prices, weekly earnings, and hours, coupled with increased economic pessimism, could be a recipe for deflation.
Christian Science Monitor Online

By Robert Reich

September 21, 2010

Three economic reports today (Friday) that should sound warning bells about deflation.

1. The Labor Department reports that consumer prices are essentially flat. Compared to August 2009, prices are up 1.1%. That’s only slightly lower than the 1.2% year-on-year rise in July. Excluding volatile food and energy, however, consumer prices in August were 0.9% higher than a year earlier. That’s below the Fed’s informal inflation target of between 1.5% and 2.0%.

2. In a separate report, the Labor Department said real average weekly earnings were unchanged in August from July, as both the average work week and hourly earnings were flat.

3. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan September reading of consumer confidence shows consumers more pessimistic in September than in August. In fact, consumer sentiment is the lowest since August 2009... Full Story

13. College tuition high, but cost of not going is higher
College tuition and student loans take an average 11 years to make up, says a new study. But college grads still come out ahead.
Christian Science Monitor

September 21, 2010

College tuition is high. Student loans can be crushing. Is higher education really worth all that money?

Yes, especially in a recession, says a new report from the College Board, a Princeton, N.J., not-for-profit group that administers the SAT and other college-readiness programs. College graduates not only make more money than a high school graduate who hasn’t attended college, they're more likely to be employed.

Between 2008 and 2009, unemployment for college graduates rose from 2.6 percent to 4.6 percent, the report found. But in that same year, high school graduates saw their unemployment rates rise from 5.7 percent to 9.7 percent...

A recession makes the difference more acute.

“Whenever you have a recession, it takes hardship and multiplies it by five," says DAVID CARD, AN ECONOMICS PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. "Groups that have traditionally had it easy will experience a little discomfort, and groups that have always struggled will really suffer.” Full Story

14. Calif. Utility Stumbles on 1.4M Years Old Fossils
New York Times

September 21, 2010

Riverside, Calif. (AP) -- A utility company preparing to build a new substation in an arid canyon southeast of Los Angeles has stumbled on a trove of animal fossils dating back 1.4 million years that researchers say will fill in blanks in Southern California's history.

The well-preserved cache contains nearly 1,500 bone fragments, including a giant cat that was the ancestor of the saber-toothed tiger, ground sloths the size of a modern-day grizzly bear, two types of camels and more than 1,200 bones from small rodents. Other finds include a new species of deer, horse and possibly llama, researchers affiliated with the project said...

Researchers discover new species all the time, but uncovering so many from a single excavation site is rare, said PALEONTOLOGIST JERE LIPPS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, who was not part of the find.

''If they really are new species, that strikes me as something that would be pretty important,'' Lipps said...

[This story also appeared in several news sources, including Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News] Full Story

15. Sliding Toward Climate Catastrophe
Middle East Online

September 21, 2010

The Russian heat wave, Pakistan floods, and the breaking up of the Greenland ice-sheet -- are these indications that things are getting worse faster than previously imagined?

The coincidence and severity of such natural disasters as the Russian heat wave, Pakistan floods and the breaking up of the Greenland ice-sheet in recent months has prompted renewed debate about the role of global warming and whether such crises are merely a foretaste of things to come.

Scientists emphasise that there is no hard data directly linking these recent disasters to specific changes in the earth’s climate due to human interference but warn that such crises fit unnervingly well into scientific projections that higher global average temperatures will increase the frequency and intensity of these sorts of extreme weather events...

Things are, however, getting worse faster than previously imagined. Currently, governments talk about stabilizing global average temperatures below 2C, at an atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases at 450 parts per million (ppm). But according to Dr James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the upper limit for a safe climate is far lower, at around 350 ppm.

The problem is that even 350 ppm could be far too conservative. Professor John Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, warns that a safe level of emissions is more likely between 280 and 300 ppm. With the earth already beyond 300 ppm, we are heading for a minimum rise of 2C this century. SCIENTISTS AT LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY and the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY project that at current rates of fossil fuel emissions, we are set to reach temperature rises of up to 8C within 90 years... Full Story

16. Blog: Program boosts community college transfers
Washington Post/College Inc.

September 20, 2010

A Community College Transfer Initiative launched four years ago by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation greatly increased the volume of students transferring from community colleges to eight selective four-year colleges.

By supporting the transfer process at receiving schools, the initiative dramatically boosted community college transfers to some of the nation's most prestigious schools: Amherst College, Bucknell University, Cornell University, Mount Holyoke College, THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina and the University of Southern California. A report on the initiative, "Partnerships that Promote Success," was released this month.

Among the eight schools, the initiative yielded 550 transfers in the 2007-08 academic year. By 2009-10, transfer enrollment had risen to 1,723.

The University of Michigan enrolled 1,104 community college transfers as of 2009-10; Mount Holyoke, 275; Berkeley, 245; Cornell, 113.

Transfer from community college to a four-year institution is an efficient pathway both for students and taxpayers: Students can complete the first two years of college for a fraction of the cost of a four-year institution, then finish with a degree from a prestigious four-year institution... Full Story

17. AOL, journalism schools team up to offer students credit for Patch work
USA Today

September 21, 2010

Up to now, AOL has pitched its Patch Media simply as a provocative new business that sells ads on Web sites filled with hyper-local news.

But in an arrangement unveiled this morning, called PatchU, the company says that its editors will also provide a graduate level education to students from 13 journalism schools who will work for Patch in exchange for college credits.

Editors don't have to be scholars. PatchU students, the press release says, will learn trade skills including how to "pitch and write stories, cover local events, shoot and edit photos and videos, integrate content with social media and produce stories online using Patch's leading content management system."

Patch is one of the few news organizations that can "provide this type of digital training and offer traditional structure, discipline and professional feedback," says Bob Papper, Chair of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations at Hofstra University -- a founding partner of PatchU.

Other schools providing free labor to AOL include The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Stanford University Graduate Program in Journalism, and THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM.

Patch says it will be nation's "largest hirer of full-time journalists" this year, with sites offering news to more than 500 neighborhoods in 20 states.

[Other stories on this subject appeared in journalism.co.uk] Full Story

18. Nokia's Green Seeks to Regain R&D Edge as IPhone, Android Grow
San Francisco Chronicle, Business Report with Bloomberg

September 20, 2010

Nokia Oyj Chief Technology Officer Rich Green says he's looking for "dirty jerseys" to help the Finnish company regain the edge in smartphones from Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

"I want to be very focused on working with the people who are building the product," Green said in an interview. "They should be in the game, playing, and not on the sidelines with a clean jersey telling people what to do."

The former Sun Microsystems Inc. executive, who was named to the position four months ago, is charged with making choices that get products to market faster and attract third-party application writers. Apple's iPhones and devices based on Google's Android have eroded Nokia's dominance as they rolled out regular upgrades and built large apps portfolios...

The Nokia Research Center, which conducts research with a horizon of three to 10 years in a dozen locations from Berkeley to Nairobi, employs 500 people. Headed by Henry Tirri, the labs come under corporate development and their projects have included everything from Chinese character and speech recognition and more efficient spectrum use to wearable devices.

Nokia also has projects with universities such as the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, where it studied using mobile phones to collect traffic data. The company recently opened a lab with Intel Corp. at Finland's University of Oulu working on 3-D visuals that could include simulations like "Second Life" and holographic projections reminiscent of "Star Wars."... Full Story

19. Government to fund study trips to prestigious U.S. colleges
Focus Taiwan/News Channel

September 21, 2010

Taipei---The government will provide a combined NT$200 million (US$6 million) yearly for four top local universities to fund 60 teachers and students from their schools to study in prestigious U.S. universities and colleges starting next spring, Deputy Minister of Education Lin Tsong-ming said Tuesday.

The four universities will be selected at the end of this year and receive funding under a five-year, NT$50 billion program administered by the Ministry of Education, Lin said.

The universities will each get US$1.5 million per year to allow a total of 20 professors, 20 postdoctoral research fellows and 20 doctoral students to study at U.S. schools as part of an academic exchange program, with priority given to those in the fields of the humanities and social sciences, Lin said...

Other Taiwanese universities are in talks with the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the exchange program, he added... Full Story

20. More bucks for Bucky? UW mulls multimillion-dollar study to save money
The Capitol Times

September 21, 2010

When UW-Madison leaders quietly made it known last month they were searching for a consultant to examine how the university might run more efficiently and effectively, the few faculty and staff on campus aware of the proposal may well have been a bit uneasy with the whole idea.

The world of higher education, after all, is not an enterprise with an easy-to-measure bottom line. Of course, with the state facing a projected budget shortfall of at least $2.7 billion, no one was going to speak out against a project designed to save a few bucks during these economically challenging times.

But after university administrators told faculty leaders last week that such an endeavor would likely cost UW-Madison at least $3 million, some on campus started to openly question the merits of such a project...

If university leaders ultimately decide such a project makes sense, UW-Madison would join a short but growing list of large institutions turning to pricey management consultants for advice on how to save money...

Over the past two years, however, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Cornell University and the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY each turned to Bain & Company — a global business consulting firm — to examine their institutional structure and businesses practices. In all instances, school leaders made it clear the consultants would not be focusing on academic issues directly related to teaching students in the classroom...

Cornell, where Martin spent eight years as provost before arriving in Madison two years ago, is hoping to save some $90 million annually thanks to Bain’s expertise, while UC-Berkeley recently announced it is looking to save $75 million each year...

...Cornell did not indicate how much it paid Bain for its work, while reports indicate it will cost UC-Berkeley $3 million... Full Story

21. World's Best Universities: Top 400
U.S.News & World Report's World's Best Universities rankings, based on the QS World University Rankings, identified these to be the world's top universities in 2010.
U.S. News and World

September 21, 2010

#28 University of California, Berkeley (UCB)United States 85.2
Academic Peer Review Score 100 Employer Review Score 100
Student to Faculty Score 38 International Faculty Score 92
International Students Score 40 Citations per Faculty Score 97 Full Story

22. What California governor's agenda should be
San Francisco Chronicle

September 21, 2010

I agreed to be on a panel at UC BERKELEY'S MATSUI CENTER FOR POLITICS AND PUBLIC SERVICE Monday night, where we addressed the question, "California's Next Governor: What Should the Agenda Be?" Here's my agenda for her or him.

California voters are looking for two things - a strong economy and a stable government. The new governor can start by working on a solid budget. It's time to end the roller-coaster ride by paring state government to a sustainable size and paying fairly for that package... Full Story

Today's Edition of UC Berkeley in the News