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Thursday, 24 September 2009
1. UC students, staff protest budget cuts
KGO TV
September 24, 2009
San Francisco (KGO) -- MORE THAN 1,000 STUDENTS, FACULTY MEMBERS AND OTHER EMPLOYEES AT UC BERKELEY are holding a massive rally. They're taking part in a UC system walkout to demand that the regents find ways to cut their budget that don't hurt students or employees.
A UC Berkeley person said a statewide, 10 campus walkout is uncharted territory -- never before has there been such a collaborative effort. The protestors here have a series of demands to the UC Regents, including no more student fee increases and no more layoffs or furloughs....
UC Berkeley says it empathizes with protestors and expects class attendance will be lower today.
"The anger and frustration over the state's disinvestment in higher education, that's understood and shared by everyone on this campus," said UCB EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, DAN MOGULOF.
The shared hope is that UC regents will find alternative ways to deal with the $750 million shortfall in state funding....
[Link to video. Other broadcast stories aired on KCBS and KQED Radio (link to audios). Articles have appeared in the Contra Costa Times, San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, and nbcbayarea.com] Full Story
2. '60s Tactics, New Cause
Inside Higher Ed
September 24, 2009
Few think the clock will be turned back to the BERKELEY of the 1960s, but the protests planned across the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA today mark a return to the tactics of another era. This time, however, the cause isn’t free speech or an end to war, but instead a response to the university administration’s budget-cutting proposals.
Today will be the first day of classes for 8 of the 10 campuses in the California system, and protest organizers plan to send an early message that the budget cuts besetting the university have been inappropriately addressed by system leaders. The centerpiece of the planned action is a walkout, which has been supported by systemwide student and technical employee organizations, as well as more than 1,100 faculty who’ve signed an online petition supporting the walkout.
Some campuses have also planned teach-ins, which will center on discussions about California's budget shortfall. The protests come in response to a number of actions taken in recent months by California’s regents, who approved a combination of furloughs and tuition increases to help fill an $813 million budget hole. Today’s demonstration has three stated goals:
* No furloughs or pay cuts for those making less than $40,000 a year.
* Implementation of a furlough plan endorsed by the Academic Senate, which suggested a portion of the furlough days be taken on instructional days...
* Full disclosure of the system’s budget, which some argue has been insufficiently transparent throughout the budget-cutting process.
...In a letter to Berkeley faculty, PROVOST GEORGE BRESLAUER and CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU said faculty participation in the walkout was “a matter of personal prerogative.’ They urged, however, that faculty who planned to walk out make their intentions known to department chairs so arrangements could be made for unspecified “alternative arrangements.” ... Full Story
3. Berkeley Lab engineer tapped to head U.S. energy R&D agency
EE Times
September 24, 2009
Washington — Roughly seven months after launching a new energy research agency, the Obama administration has nominated a top engineer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to head the office.
ARUN MAJUMDAR, currently associate laboratory director at Berkeley Lab and a PROFESSOR OF ENGINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, was nominated on Sept. 18 to head the Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E). Majumdar is a mechanical engineer and a materials science specialist....
His research has focused on energy conversion and storage along with transportation, spanning the molecular and nanoscale levels up to large energy systems. Majumdar also has worked on energy efficiency and storage along with renewable energy projects.
Majumbar also has served as an advisor to federal science and engineering agencies.
"He is very highly regarded," said one engineering professor who works on energy projects. "When it comes to scientific positions, Obama actually appoints real scientists."...
[Another story on this topic appeared in Science Online] Full Story
4. UC Berkeley professors among 'genius grant' recipients
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
September 24, 2009
Chicago — A PAIR OF UC BERKELEY PROFESSORS were among 24 recipients of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius grants."...
"We're looking for ways to have an impact with the grants," said Bob Gallucci, the foundation's president. "This is not just an award for past accomplishment (but) for the potential to do more creative things in the future."
Among the winners were UC BERKELEY PROFESSORS MANEESH AGRAWALA, A COMPUTER SCIENTIST, and LIN HE, A BIOLOGIST.
Agrawala said he was "amazed and speechless" to receive the foundation's phone call last week, while he was trying to finish a paper.
"I made the deadline, but it was quite distracting," he said.
Agrawala studies how people understand information on computer screens, such as maps. One of his projects, called LineDrive, is used by Microsoft to simplify driving directions.
LineDrive mimics hand-drawn maps, leaving out the streets that do not pertain to a route. People often are distracted by extra — and useless — information on maps, he said....
He also studies how to make storytelling more effective, including through animation, radio and print. Agrawala plans to use the MacArthur grant to learn more about radio journalism, and specifically how stories are told on the radio.
The other Berkeley professor declined to comment Tuesday.... Full Story
5. MRI, solar cells, aging work lead Nobel predictions
Reuters
September 24, 2009
Researchers at Thomson Scientific have named 25 possible winners of the 2009 Nobel prizes in physiology or medicine, chemistry, physics and economics, to be named starting Oct. 6.
Here is a list of the likely winners, as predicted by Thomson Reuters' David Pendlebury, who has been making such picks since 1989....
Physiology or Medicine
...James Rothman of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and RANDY SCHEKMAN OF UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, for work on cellular membrane trafficking. "They have been the pioneers and very highly cited on unraveling what been called traffic signals or signaling within cells," Pendlebury said....
Economics
* Ernst Fehr of University of Zurich in Switzerland and MATTHEW RABIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY who focused on decisions people make in an economic exchange about fairness or cooperation.... Full Story
6. A 50-Year History of Training the Next Generation of Space Scientists
Space News
September 21, 2009
Berkeley, Calif. — As the SPACE SCIENCES LABORATORY (SSL) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, celebrates its 50th anniversary, laboratory scientists are looking back at a broad array of accomplishments and looking forward to dozens of missions both large and small.
“We are constantly developing new concepts for scientific instruments,” said SSL DIRECTOR STUART BALE, AN ASSOCIATE PHYSICS PROFESSOR. “We test those instruments on rockets or balloons and bootstrap our way into space.” ...
More than a dozen SSL instruments and detectors are operating on U.S. and international spacecraft, including NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer, Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Explorer, Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration and the European Space Agency’s four-spacecraft Cluster mission. In May, a far ultraviolet detector built by SSL scientists and engineers was installed on the Hubble Space Telescope’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. SSL officials are designing instruments for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution satellite set for launch in 2013, and the Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission scheduled for launch in 2012.
In addition to developing instruments, SSL officials also have been tasked in recent years with overseeing entire space agency projects, Bale said. For example, ROBERT LIN, FORMER SSL DIRECTOR and principal investigator for NASA’s Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), has managed every aspect of the project from instrument design and satellite integration to flight operations and data analysis. RHESSI, launched in 2002 as part of the Small Explorer program, continues to investigate solar flares and the sun’s coronal mass ejections. ...
SSL received an $890,000 award from the National Science Foundation for a three-year program to build and launch the CINEMA satellite for space weather research. As part of that effort, Kyung Hee University plans to build and send into orbit a second identical spacecraft, according to an Aug. 30 award from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences.
This CubeSat research is particularly important because constellations of small satellites are the wave of the future, said FORREST MOZER, A PHYSICIST WHO JOINED THE LABORATORY IN 1966. “A decade from now, there will be missions with 50 spacecraft constellations. They will certainly have to be of this scale.” ... Full Story
7. High-schoolers get stem cell lesson
KGO TV
September 23, 2009
Pleasanton, CA (KGO) -- More than 40 researchers partnered with high school teachers statewide this week in an effort to educate young people about the science of stem cells. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM, organized the lectures in science classes from Sacramento to San Diego, reaching nearly 3,500 students.
If it were not for the subject matter, a recent class at College Park High School would have been just another science lesson for the students. Instead, their questions quickly crossed into an ongoing national debate.
"Why don't some people want stem cell research to happen?" asked student Rashan Rahimi.
"Really, the debate centers around where the source of the stem cells is," replied UC [BERKELEY] PROFESSOR DAVID SCHAFFER, PH.D.
Schaffer is a professor of bio-engineering at the University California. His lecture is part of a statewide education program sponsored by the voter-created California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. It covered the science of stem cells, from those cultivated using adult skin cells, to those created from surplus human embryos. ...
The 90-minute lecture also focused on the promise of stem cell therapies for ailments ranging from Parkinson's to heart disease. While he has given dozens of lectures on stem cell research, Schaffer says this was his first to high school students, who he points out, will soon weigh in on the issue as voters....
[Link to video] Full Story
8. Ahmadinejad quiet about 3 UC Berkeley grads
KGO Radio
September 23, 2009
Berkeley, CA (KGO) -- There was a highly anticipated speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations on Wednesday. Family and friends of THREE U.C. BERKELEY GRADS being held in Iran were hoping to hear him reach out and expand on comments he made Tuesday. Instead, President Ahmadinejad lashed out at the U.S., its western allies, and Israel.
President Ahmedinejad mentioned the American hikers on the eve of his speech and because of that, friends and family were holding out hope that he would provide at least some information about the detainees, but that never happened.
"You think he might be a hero and step forward and say, 'Yes, we're releasing these young people,'" says U.C. BERKELEY JOURNALISM PROFESSOR KEN LIGHT.
It was certainly a long shot, but that's what Light was hoping for -- that in New York before the U.N. general assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad would announce the release of CAL GRADUATES SARAH SHOURD, SHANE BAUER AND JOSH FATTAL. Bauer was Light's student a few years ago.
"These young people are completely uninvolved in the political situation that's happening here in the U.S. or is happening in Iran," says Light. "But obviously they are pawns in a very big political game, unfortunately."...
"I'm hopeful that they are young, they are resilient, they're very smart and the world is watching," says Light....
[Link to video] Full Story
9. Satellite reveals faster melting of polar ice
San Francisco Chronicle
September 24, 2009
A NASA satellite has revealed more accurately than ever that polar ice in Antarctica and Greenland is melting from glaciers and ice sheets far faster than scientists had previously thought, a discovery that one UC BERKELEY CLIMATE EXPERT calls "ominous and distressing."
Using a laser aboard an orbiting spacecraft that precisely measures minute changes in the thickness of glaciers and ice sheets, scientists with the British Antarctic Survey calculate that along the coast of West Antarctica's Amundsen Sea, for example, the massive Pine Island glacier and two others thinned by nearly 30 feet a year from 2003 to 2007, 50 percent faster than the glacier's thinning rate between 1995 and 2003....
"This report provides a much more ominous picture than we have had, and a depressing prospect of the potential for sea level rise," INEZ FUNG, A NOTED ATMOSPHERIC SCIENTIST AT UC BERKELEY said Wednesday. "It's very much a cause for worry."... Full Story
10. Utilities: Water to be auctioned by Chino Basin Watermaster
The auction is bound to raise the price. Putting water up for bid seems to be a first in California.
Los Angeles Times
September 24, 2009
Need more water? If you've got $30 million or so, you can bid for it at an auction this fall.
In what officials believe is a first for the state, a Southern California water agency is planning to auction off enough water to supply about 70,000 homes for a year....
MICHAEL HANEMANN, A RESOURCE ECONOMICS PROFESSOR AT UC BERKELEY, called water auctions "an idea that makes sense" but wasn't sure whether they would take off as a trend.
Water "is a limited resource and we need to be aware of that. Putting a price on that is good. It makes the real value of the water transparent," he said. "Raising the price, while unpleasant, is telling us something we need to know."... Full Story
11. Some doubt hand washing stops H1N1
CNN.com
September 24, 2009
..."Washing hands really is wonderful for preventing many diseases, such as the common cold, but it's not very helpful to prevent influenza," said ARTHUR REINGOLD, PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY.
I gave Reingold two scenarios. The first: I'm sitting in a movie theater next to -- but not touching -- someone with H1N1, and he sneezes and doesn't cover his mouth. The second: Someone with H1N1 rubs his nose, shakes my hand, and then I rub my nose. In which situation am I more likely to catch the flu?
That's easy, said Reingold, an infectious disease specialist who advises on vaccine policy for the World Health Organization. The theater incident is much more likely -- much, much more likely, he said -- to give me the flu, since inhaling particles results in a bigger dose of the virus....
MARK NICAS, AN ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, thinks a significant number of flu cases do indeed spread from hands touching one another. "I think that hand contact accounts for maybe one-third of influenza infections," he said....
"Everyone's eager to promote hand washing, and certainly it won't do any harm, but to rely on a hand washing as a way to prevent influenza is a serious mistake," said Reingold.... Full Story
12. For ACORN, controversy now a matter of survival
USA Today
September 24, 2009
Los Angeles — Millicent Hill says God put her in her stucco home on East 92nd Street, but she believes she would have lost the house without ACORN....
Here and in other states, ACORN focuses on helping people with housing issues, supporting changes to health care and immigration policies, and registering voters....
ACORN was founded in Little Rock in 1970 by Wade Rathke, who had been working for a welfare rights group....
GARY DELGADO was there in the beginning, too. ACORN's goals were to build a multiracial organization, he says, and to bridge the gap between the poor and lower-working-class people.
From the start, ACORN was political. "We pretty early on endorsed candidates, ran candidates for school boards and definitely jammed up candidates publicly," says DELGADO, SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF SOCIAL CHANGE.
ACORN's leaders soon realized that growth would give it more power, so it embarked on a campaign to spread to 20 states by 1980, Delgado says. Eventually, it would have operations in more than 40 states; now it's in 30....
Delgado says rethinking ACORN's structure is essential — but so is its work. "They play a critical role in holding the line for the voiceless," he says.... Full Story
13. Irving police dispute law school's racial profiling study
Dallas Morning News
September 24, 2009
Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd on Wednesday disputed a California law school's study that said there was strong evidence that Irving police racially profiled Hispanics to put them through an immigration deportation program.
Boyd said RESEARCHERS AT THE CHIEF JUSTICE EARL WARREN INSTITUTE ON RACE, ETHNICITY AND DIVERSITY used faulty methods and discounted other police initiatives to reach their conclusions....
AARTI KOHLI, A CO-AUTHOR OF THE STUDY, said researchers used sound methodology and even submitted their report to a peer review by a social scientist....
THE INSTITUTE THAT PERFORMED THE STUDY IS PART OF THE LAW SCHOOL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY. It uses university and private funding to develop research aimed at informing advocacy groups, legislators and the public.... Full Story
14. In Dairyland, Pollan's 'Food' book sparks debate
Washington Post
September 23, 2009
Madison, Wis. -- One best-selling book advocating fresh, local foods is shaking up America's Dairyland.
Students across University of Wisconsin-Madison's campus, organic grocers, scientists, and dairy farmers large and small have jumped into the debate on how food is produced and eaten. The discussions started last month when the university began giving MICHAEL POLLAN's book, "In Defense of Food," free to all incoming freshmen and school officials urged professors to use it in class.
"I have not seen the students this excited about something in years," Irwin Goodman, a horticulture professor who is vice dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences said of the buzz on campus about Pollan's field-to-table philosophies....
Pollan's work has been used on college campuses from the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY, WHERE HE IS A JOURNALISM PROFESSOR, to Columbia University in New York City for courses ranging from science journalism to environmental politics. But the program at UW-Madison is unique because the book and related topics are being discussed everywhere from French and political science courses to an exhibit on the history of food. And Pollan is to speak at the 17,000-seat Kohl Center Thursday in the liberal college town....
[This story appeared in more than 100 sources nationwide, including the Contra Costa Times, Sacramento Bee, and Los Angeles Times] Full Story
15. Marketplace Op-Ed: What good does the Dow rising do?
NPR
September 23, 2009
...So how can the Dow be flirting with 10,000 when consumers, who make up 70 percent of the economy, have had to cut way back on buying because they have no money? Jobs continue to disappear. Houses can no longer function as piggy banks because they're worth far less. And Americans are compelled to pay off their debts and start to save, for the first time in a decade.
Even more curious, how can the Dow be so far up when every business and Wall Street executive I come across tells me government is crushing the economy with its huge deficits, and its supposed "takeover" of health care, autos, housing, energy, and finance? Their anguished cries of "socialism" are almost drowning out all their cheers over the surging Dow.
The explanation is simple. The great consumer retreat from the market is being offset by government's advance into the market. Consumer debt is way down from its peak in 2006, government debt is way up. Consumer spending is down, government spending is up. Why have housing prices stopped falling and new housing starts begun? Because the Fed is keeping mortgage rates low by buying up Fannie and Freddie's paper....
[Link to audio] Full Story
16. Retail hire looking bleak this season
KGO TV
September 23, 2009
Sacramento, Calif. (KABC) -- Millions of out-of-work Americans may be catching a break. Congress appears poised to extend unemployment benefits for several more weeks. That's the good news. The bad news is that the job market is looking very bleak heading into the holiday season....
The unemployment extension could be timely. Stores are usually gearing up for holiday hiring about now.
But 40 percent of retailers surveyed by the human resources consulting firm, the Hay Group, said they expect to hire up a quarter fewer seasonal workers than last year....
"Lower spending translates into fewer people needed in the stores," said PROFESSOR HARLEY SHAIKEN, UC BERKELEY LABOR ECONOMIST. "Few people hired, fewer consumers out there, the recovery itself slows. That's the danger we face."...
[Link to video] Full Story
17. Epicenter Blog: A Writer’s Plea: Figure Out How to Preserve Google Books
Wired.com
September 24, 2009
The dispute over Google Books continues to rage in the courts and op-ed pages of the country. There are legitimate questions about Google, profit sharing and privacy. But let’s not let the litigation obscure that Google Books provides an unprecedented and irreproducible service to its users.
I’m a science writer at Wired.com, but I’m also working on a book about the history of (what we now call) green technology. My book puts a topic front and center that has been hidden in the footnotes of the American energy story. And without Google Books, I’m not sure it would have been possible to write it. At the very least, my contribution to the book world would have been smaller and shallower.
The searchability, accessibility and breadth of the Google Books collection do not just portend some future best-ever digital library. It’s already the best resource for research that exists.
I’m not a traditional library- or book-hater. I’m a visiting scholar at BERKELEY’S OFFICE FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY and have dozens of books checked out from the UC system. I smell the insides of old books for pleasure.
But traditional library digging is almost unbelievably inefficient when you’re used to the instant access provided not just by the internet, but the Internet Archive, JSTOR, arXiv and newspaper archives like Proquest and Chronicling America.... Full Story
18. Forum with Michael Krasny: Are Women Becoming Unhappier?
KQED Radio
September 24, 2009
Over recent decades, women have been becoming unhappier while men's happiness has increased. That's according to data from the General Social Survey which has tracked Americans' moods since 1972. What are the possible causes?
Guests:
...CHRISTINE CARTER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF [UC BERKELEY'S] GREATER GOOD SCIENCE CENTER and author of "Raising Happiness"...
[Link to audio] Full Story
19. Stanford University endowment plunges 27 percent
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
September 24, 2009
Stanford University's endowment, one of the richest in the country, plunged a staggering $4.6 billion last fiscal year, declining more than one-quarter in value because of an investment strategy that has produced stellar results for years — but also exposed it to huge risk.
News of the endowment's worst drop ever — 27 percent — was anticipated by the Stanford community, which has endured budget cuts, layoffs and postponed construction. But the decline in the portfolio's value is startling in its immensity, enough to buy 8,932 median priced houses in Santa Clara County or more than 23 million of the latest iPhones.
In fact, Stanford was outperformed by much smaller Santa Clara University, which stuck to a simpler and more traditional approach and suffered a less dismal 20 percent decline in the value of its endowment. UC-BERKELEY's endowment dropped 15.8 percent.... Full Story
20. Preparing for life after oil – top research in the desert
Nanowerk Spotlight
September 24, 2009
Sand. Shrubs. Burst tires. More sand. The last thing you would expect as you drive along the Red Sea near Mecca is to encounter an ultramodern science city. Yet there it is.
Appearing after an 80 kilometer drive from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city, the 36 square kilometer campus of King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) appears like a Fata Morgana out of the desert sand.
Yesterday, September 23rd, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia officially opened the country's most modern and ambitious university near the old fishing village of Thuwal. Nanowerk was invited to attend the spectacular opening ceremony....
...The list of partner universities reads like a Who’s Who of the academic world: Caltech, Cornell, MIT, Stanford, BERKELEY, Georgia Tech, TU Munich, CNRS, Imperial College London, University of Tokyo, National University of Singapore, University of Toronto, and many more. Among corporate research partnerships you’ll find names like IBM, Dow Chemical, Schlumberger, Sumitomo Chemical or Boeing....
Between the 8th and 13th centuries, while Europe was in the Dark Ages, the Arab world was an intellectual center of science and learning with the famous House of Wisdom in Bagdad attracting the best minds of the known world. Arab scholars were active in, among other fields, medicine, astronomy, optics and mathematics (the word algorithm derives from Al Khwarizmi, a mathematician at the House of Wisdom in the 9th century). With its massive investment in education and amazing highlights like KAUST, the country is trying to rekindle the Arab spirit of learning and scientific inquiry and create a second House of Wisdom. How a country with a religious police (the Mutaween) known for its ruthlessness will reconcile the demands of a modern scientific environment that is based on freedom of inquiry and unrestricted flow of information with the strict and conservative environment of its Islamic theocracy remains to be seen. KAUST, however is a very impressive step in this direction. Full Story
21. Media File Blog: Talk, scratch head, talk some more (The future of news)
Reuters
September 24, 2009
I got this invitation in my e-mail this week:
Because press space at the invitation-only event is extremely limited, kindly contact me as soon as possible to secure a seat.
Following is background on the event:
WHAT: A unique invitation-only gathering of more than 100 senior leaders from media and technology, the UCBERKELEY MEDIA TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT IS BEING ORGANIZED BY THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. The summit, which will run from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 at the Googleplex, is intended to provide the leaders of traditional media companies with new insights into the technologies, consumer behavior and advertising systems that will affect their businesses at a time of momentous change (Sounds like the latest opportunity to smack around traditional media companies for being traditional, no? — ed). The Koret Foundation, Google and the McCormick Foundation are generously sponsoring the event.
I got my invitation from [UC BERKELEY JOURNALISM LECTURER] ALAN MUTTER, who blogs about the future of the news business at Reflections of a Newsosaur and someone whom I frequently ask for expert comments for my news stories. Because it’s from Alan, I know it will be interesting, and I wish I could attend.... Full Story
22. Leah Garchik
San Francisco Chronicle
September 24, 2009
...Tuesday's annual Foundation of City College of San Francisco's Basic Skills Scholarship Luncheon honored beloved local leader Walter Newman, president of an array of cultural and civic institutions and the first board member of the City College Foundation. The lunch featured several rousing rounds of applause for Newman, and lots of upbeat talk about dreams and ambitions and reaching for success.
But its most memorable details were numbers, evidence of some chilling facts: Forty-two percent of San Franciscans in the workforce have studied at City College; the student body has 10,000 more students this year than last; budget cuts mean the college will do away with 800 classes this year. Speaker Alvin Jenkins directs a program that supports students emancipated from foster homes automatically at the age of 18, when they find themselves without resources, housing and means of support. He said that 65 percent become homeless after leaving foster care; 54 percent of young men wind up in jail within 18 months of becoming emancipated; only 3 percent of emancipated foster kids graduate from college. The first-person story was that of TYRONE BOTELHO, who lived in 18 foster homes after being thrown out of his house by his mother. He described one foster mother packing his belongings in a trash bag and putting it out, along with him. Botelho, a graduate of City College, is NOW STUDYING AT UC BERKELEY.
It's a wonderful tale, but the best part of it isn't high-flown ambition. City College gave him tools. Jenkins said he was as proud of Botelho as he would be of one of his kids. "Tyrone," he said, "has learned to cope."... Full Story