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Thursday, 5 November 2009
1. As Berkeley Enrolls More Out-of-State Students, Racial Diversity May Suffer
Chronicle of Higher Education (*requires registration)
November 4, 2009
San Francisco -- Ever since California voters banned affirmative action by state agencies in 1996, the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY has struggled to enroll more than a small group of black and Latino students. Four years ago, CHANCELLOR ROBERT J. BIRGENEAU called the university's low numbers "shocking" and said the situation was "a crisis."
But after making limited progress since then, Berkeley officials are now struggling to avoid another drop in the enrollment of underrepresented minority students, this time because of pressures from state budget cuts.
To save money, Berkeley plans to reduce the size of next fall's freshman class. The university intends to enroll about 15 percent fewer Californians, while at the same time nearly doubling its number of out-of-state and international students, who will generate millions of dollars in new revenue from higher, nonresident tuition....
According to rough estimates prepared by a university panel on nonresident enrollment, the number of Latino freshmen who enroll next year could decline by 18 percent, the number of black freshmen by 13 percent, and the number of first-generation freshmen by 15 percent. ...
Underrepresented minority and low-income students are at risk when the enrollment of California students is reduced because those groups tend to be concentrated near the cutoff point for admission, said WALTER A. ROBINSON, BERKELEY'S ADMISSIONS DIRECTOR. Out-of-state students, who must pay higher nonresident tuition, are typically a less-diverse group....
"I'm hoping that we can put the procedures in place that will allow us to minimize the damage," said GEORGE C. JOHNSON, A PROFESSOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING and co-author of the panel's report on nonresident enrollment. "Ideally, that would mean that our ethnic diversity looks the same this year as it does next year. It's not clear that that's doable."...
Mr. Birgeneau, the chancellor, said it was too early to predict the outcome of the admissions process for next fall's freshman class. He said that while the student body would probably get wealthier, aggressive outreach programs might help the university compensate for potential declines in racial diversity....
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
2. Some UC Berkeley Faculty Criticize Sports Subsidy
New York Times (*requires registration)
November 5, 2009
Berkeley, Calif. (AP) -- Home to the nationally ranked Cal Bears and a clutch of Nobel laureates, the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, boasts brains and brawn.
But with budget cuts fraying the seams of campus life -- fewer classes, faculty furloughs, student fee hikes -- tension has developed over the millions that go to support Cal's sporting life.
Some faculty are proposing the department be compelled to live within its means, something they planned to discuss at a meeting of the ACADEMIC SENATE Thursday.
''We need to get our priorities straight in a time of budget crisis,'' said MICHAEL O'HARE, A PUBLIC POLICY PROFESSOR who is supporting a resolution calling for, among other things, the end to subsidizing intercollegiate athletics....
CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU is ''disturbed'' by the deficit and covered it with the understanding the money will be paid back, said CAMPUS SPOKESMAN DAN MOGULOF.
But the administration defends the ongoing support. The $5 million from 2008-09 (this is separate from the $5.8 million deficit) went for women's programs, required by Title IX, Mogulof said....
O'Hare said he supports Title IX, but what's at issue here is putting millions into a program that benefits a small group of elite athletes. ''We're talking about spectator sports,'' he said.
Berkeley, one of the nation's most prestigious universities, isn't the only school struggling with this issue....
[This story appeared in more than 100 sources nationwide, including the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Sacramento Bee, and Los Angeles Times. Another story appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle] Full Story
3. Once-wealthy Golden State system loses its lustre
California's staggering debt threatens the future of its mighty public universities. Jon Marcus reports
Times Higher Education [UK]
November 5, 2009
Carved from the Pacific coast's rust-coloured Palomar Mountain range, the University of California, San Diego seems as close to paradise as any public higher education institution in the US is likely to get....
Public universities in America, which educate three quarters of the nation's students, have been disproportionately affected by the economic downturn....
California, as is so often the case, is the most dramatic example of the problems. Its public university system is the largest in the country and is divided into three parts: 110 community colleges; 23 state universities; and the University of California's ten campuses.
Traditionally, it has also been among the best, including as it does University of California, Los Angeles and San Diego, both ranked among the US' top 20 research universities, plus UC BERKELEY, widely considered to be the best public university in America. Faculty at all the UC schools have won 55 Nobel prizes between them.
But huge and continuing population growth (about 50 per cent since 1980), corporate tax cuts, a stuttering state government and a huge increase in prison spending have left California with a staggering $40 billion shortfall in public revenue....
Most of the University of California's 180,000 faculty and staff are being forced to take unpaid furloughs. Enrolment is being reduced by a collective 300,000, and UCLA has cut the number of its courses by 165 this autumn, or 10 per cent. Academic recruitment at Berkeley has been scaled back from 100 scholars a year to about ten.
More than 300 UC staff warned Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California - himself the product of a California community college - that the cuts imperil not only the prestige of the universities, but the economy of the state.... Full Story
4. UCSC: Scientists propose 'genome zoo' of 10,000 vertebrate species
San Jose Mercury News
November 5, 2009
The University of California-Santa Cruz could someday house the world's largest zoo — holding not live animals, but the genetic codes of 10,000 different creatures, many of them exotic or extinct.
This ambitious quest, led by some of the nation's top geneticists and unveiled Wednesday morning, would cost $50 million and take a lifetime to achieve.
But the computer-based conservatory — called the Genome 10K Project — would transform biology, building a digital record of molecular triumphs and stumbles across 500 million years of evolutionary history....
The 54-page proposal is described in today's issue of the Journal of Heredity. More than 65 other scientists, including some from UC-BERKELEY, the federal Laboratory of Genomic Diversity and the San Diego Zoo, have joined the project....
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune] Full Story
5. Aerial Robots Future of Aviation?
Powerful Robots Programmed To Avoid Collisions
KCRA.com [Sacramento]
November 4, 2009
Sacramento, Calif. -- Small but powerful aerial robots, specially programmed to avoid mid-air collisions, could help pilot the future of aviation.
"I am super optimistic about where these things can go," said HAOMIAO HUANG, A GRADUATE STUDENT. "I look at these things and I see the future."
Huang is part of team that is pioneering collision avoidance technology. They use small, inexpensive aircraft that are easy to build and repair. It looks like a computer motherboard attached to a square exoskeleton powered by four small propellers. It’s programmed with advanced algorithms or sets of instructions.
"It’s programmed into the individual vehicles that may come in conflict with each other," said DR. CLAIRE TOMLIN, PROFESSOR OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AT BOTH U.C. BERKELEY and Stanford. "We would like to have guarantees that these algorithms will safely guide the vehicles away from each other."...
Students like Huang said it will be the future of aviation.
"All the technology behind all of this work is going to be up there. It's going to be making in some sense the future of air travel and so thinking about that is incredibly exciting to me," Huang said. Full Story
6. Grads turn coffee into gourmet mushrooms
KGO TV
November 5, 2009
Berkeley, CA (KGO) -- TWO NEW GRADUATES FROM UC BERKELEY'S BUSINESS SCHOOL are trying to turn coffee grounds into a high demand food for local consumers. But the venture doesn't stop there, it gives back to community as well....
"Mushrooms biologically grow really well in hardwoods, and so, coffee acts like a hardwood biologically, and we can grow them pretty well in that," said BTTR Ventures founder NIKHILL ARORA.
The mushrooms aren't caffeinated produce, they just absorb all the coffee grounds' nutrients. So, why in the world are two new graduates from UC Berkeley's Business School, Nikhil Arora and ALEJANDRO VELEZ, growing mushrooms for a living?
"I was a business-political science student. Alex was business-education. So neither of us had any background in mycology, but I think we both have the passion to do something one on our own, and two that kind of looked out for the community and had a social conscious as well," said Arora....
Seeded by a $5,000 social innovation grant from Cal, they researched and launched a for-profit social venture called BTTR Ventures; BTTR stands for "Back To The Roots". The goal is to be a sustainable company focused on social responsibility. And they're accomplishing this by diverting one of America's largest waste streams out of Bay Area landfills....
[Link to video] Full Story
7. China Real Time Report Blog: A Letter to Obama
Wall Street Journal Online (*requires registration)
November 4, 2009
Dear President Obama:
I missed the opportunity to meet you when I taught at the Harvard Law School about Chinese law, but I am seizing the chance to address you in this blog before you go to China. I have some thoughts that you should keep in mind about what the current state of Chinese legal institutions might tell you about the state of China itself and how the U.S should regard both — and what we can do to help....
In recent years the U.S. government, including your predecessor’s administration, has increased the support that it has given to strengthen labor rights, legal aid, open government, and administrative law, augmenting the support for these and other institution-building efforts by multilateral and U.S. NGOs. The current administration ought to increase that support while restraining highly public calls that urge China to speed up its adherence to Western values. You might suggest creation of a modest program of U.S.-Chinese cooperation on legal issues
While you are in China, you might explore whether there is interest in Beijing in welcoming foreign assistance in legal areas of common interest. Presidents Clinton and Jiang Zemin discussed the possibility in 1997 and agreed on some areas of cooperation. Although Congress dropped the ball in refusing to provide funding, US foundations helped fill the gap. Your administration could move more decisively. The need is there, China accepts foreign assistance in numerous areas, and experience shows that the U.S. can contribute to deepening legality in China.
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
8. Privacy concern in Google Voice call recording
San Francisco Chronicle
November 5, 2009
The latest dustup over Internet services centers on Google Voice, and specifically charges lodged against each other by AT&T and Google concerning the blocking of calls by Google Voice to conference-call service providers and some rural exchanges.
The more urgent concern for consumers is privacy.
Google Voice, a software-managed call-control service, allows for free long-distance and inexpensive international calls while consolidating a user's various phone numbers under one new number. It also integrates high-end features such as automatic voice-mail transcription for free. But a closer look at Google Voice reveals elements that may be - for Google, its customers and, most important, the people on the other end of calls with Google Voice users - far more troubling than call blocking. Chief among these is the feature allowing a Google Voice user to record incoming calls. That's right, according to Google's online instructions, you can record an entire private, personal conversation simply by hitting a single key....
The Federal Communications Commission, taking note of AT&T's complaint, has written to Google with questions about its call blocking. But the implications for our privacy of software-managed call services like Google Voice are a much greater threat to consumers, and that's where the FCC should direct its energy - immediately. Full Story
9. San Francisco Bay Area: Google's Schmidt on What Sets Silicon Valley Apart
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
November 5, 2009
Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has snapped up Bay Area talent for years, first as an executive at Sun Microsystems Inc., then as CEO of computer maker Novell Inc. and now as the 54-year-old boss at Google....
Google recruits from Stanford University and the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, among other places, and has set off hiring wars with rivals such as Microsoft Corp. Now Google is poised to beef up its work force again as the tech industry comes out of a recession and workers remain plentiful amid high unemployment rates in Silicon Valley.
Here's what Mr. Schmidt, a 33-year resident of the Bay Area, had to say about Silicon Valley hiring and the role of the weather in the local labor market:
...Q: As Google starts hiring again, what percentage of your new hires will come from the Bay Area, and how does that compare to previous years?
A: I suspect it will be pretty similar. The supply lines are pretty much the same every year.
Top universities, key technical companies, talent that wants to move to Google and so the primary hiring has been, if you think of universities, has been Stanford and BERKELEY. And then you have a couple places like MIT and Carnegie Mellon.
But I would say that if you include people who are currently students and therefore they already live in Bay Area, it is probably a very healthy percentage....
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
10. Old bridge bumper technology means future oil spills likely
San Francisco Examiner
November 5, 2009
San Francisco — Two years after a rigid bumper system on a Bay Bridge tower ripped open two fuel tanks of a wayward cargo ship, the dangerously outdated technology remains in use.
After the Cosco Busan crashed into the Bay Bridge and spilled 54,000 gallons of oil Nov. 7, 2007, the damaged bumper system — which is in place to protect the span’s towers from ships — was rebuilt with the same 1930s technology, despite newer designs being available....
The old-fashioned design of the bumper systems has been criticized by UC BERKELEY ENGINEERING PROFESSOR ABDOLHASSAN ASTANEH-ASL.
“If a ship hits this bridge and spills oil in the Bay, Caltrans should be taken to court,” he said.... Full Story
11. His Tribute, Their Slur
New Oakland bar creates a theme out of a term — geisha — that some area residents find offensive.
East Bay Express
November 4, 2009
Jamal Perry has been managing bars for the last sixteen years. Most recently, he ran a couple of Oakland dives: Bigum's Silver Lion and the Golden Bull. Both have since closed, but Perry is now launching a more luxurious venue just north of Chinatown. Perry hopes to attract a share of the area's burgeoning nightlife while drawing in the 9-to-5 crowd for power lunches and after-work drinks. He's set to open before the end of the year — but some people in the neighborhood are less than thrilled.
At issue is the bar's name, "Geisha," a word that Perry's detractors say props up a demeaning image of women of Asian ancestry as submissive, erotic playthings, readily available to fulfill every man's wanton desire....
Namie Shin, Perry's collaborator and a chef who will be managing the bar's kitchen, explained, "We're trying to remove the word 'geisha' from the derogatory association that it had in the past. People think of it in a negative way, they think of brothels and whatnot, but they can now have a positive association with it."
However, DIANA PEI WU, who lives near the bar and serves as a FACULTY LECTURER IN UC BERKELEY'S ETHNIC STUDIES DEPARTMENT, said the health and well-being of area residents is threatened by having this word quite literally hanging over their heads — as it does in dark metallic lettering at the establishment's 316 14th Street location. Pointing out that young women of color in Oakland face "racialized, gendered violence" every day, she asserted, "I can't condone that kind of environment, and a bar named Geisha would actually contribute to that atmosphere."
Wu has been dismayed to hear "friends of friends" inquire if the bar will be haven to prostitutes. "This is what is in the public mind about this word, and regardless of what the intention of the owners is — or what they say their intention is — the word conjures up the stereotype," she said. "The goal is to get people to come in based on whatever their stereotypes are."... Full Story
12. Americans Are Lonelier, but Don't Blame the Internet, Report Says
Chronicle of Higher Education (*requires registration)
November 5, 2009
Americans tend to have fewer close confidants today than they did two decades ago -- but that isn't because they're all huddled over their computers playing World of Warcraft or reading the Volokh Conspiracy.
A report released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggests that the Internet and other new communication technologies have, if anything, a modestly positive effect on the size and diversity of people's friendship networks....
The 2004 round of the General Social Survey appeared to discover Americans' intimate-friendship networks had drastically shrunk since 1985. Among other things, the proportion of Americans reporting that they have zero intimate friends rose from 10 percent to 24.6 percent.
But that finding has been called into dispute. CLAUDE S. FISCHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY believes it is highly implausible that friendship networks have declined so badly, and he has argued that something must have gone wrong in the collection or coding of the 2004 survey.
The Pew researchers tried to shed light on that argument by employing essentially the same questions that the General Social Survey had used. (The core question is: "Looking back over the last six months -- who are the people with whom you have discussed matters that are important to you?")
Pew's 2008 survey found that only 12 percent of respondents reported having zero confidants -- less than half the level in the 2004 General Social Survey. Score one for Mr. Fischer.... Full Story
13. Think Like a Child
Learn to think like a kid again and unlock your hidden potential.
Success Magazine
November 4, 2009
You’ve heard about those amazingly fun offices where play is encouraged? ...
Over the past couple of decades, industry leaders have tapped into an idea that philosophers (like Nietzsche) and scientists (like Einstein) have long championed: that it is useful and sometimes necessary for people to think like children to achieve success as adults....
Our ability to learn new things is another primary positive characteristic we lose over time, says ALISON GOPNIK, A PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND AFFILIATE PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. “Children are designed by evolution to be extremely good learners—to be able to learn about anything that’s interesting and important in the world around them,” she says. “When you look at their brains, they’re extremely flexible, so they can change what they think based on new evidence very quickly and easily.”
Gopnik explains that, over time, instead of being attracted to and exploring anything new and exciting in our environments, we begin to hone in on only the things that we know are relevant to us—thus, narrowing our field of vision, making ourselves closedminded and decreasing the overall possibilities “Those two ways of perceiving—some people in computer science talk about this as the difference between a system that explores and a system that exploits. So a system that exploits says, ‘Just pay attention to the things that are most relevant to your goals.’ A system that explores goes out and looks to find all kinds of information that might be relevant, but you don’t know yet if it’s going to be relevant.
“You really need both of those things to be a successful human being,” says Gopnik, who recently published her latest book, The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us about Love, Truth and the Meaning of Life. “I say children are really the research and development division of the human species, and adults are production and marketing.”... Full Story
14. Over to you
Times Higher Education [UK]
November 5, 2009
When we published the 2009 rankings last month, there was a lively online debate about the methodology. Comments included:
..."UCL and Imperial above UC BERKELEY and Princeton? Give me a break."...
Help us develop our methodology. What makes a world-class university? What have we got wrong? What criteria would you use? Join the debate at http://tinyurl.com/yap542l. Full Story
15. New era for the world rankings
Listings revamp as Times Higher Education signs deal with Thomson Reuters. Phil Baty reports
Times Higher Education [UK]
November 5, 2009
Times Higher Education's World University Rankings are changing. The magazine has signed an agreement with Thomson Reuters, the research-data specialist, to provide data for the annual rankings.
The magazine will develop a new methodology in consultation with its readers, its editorial board of higher education experts and Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters will collect and analyse the data used to produce the rankings on behalf of Times Higher Education.... Full Story
16. Updates on Billion-Dollar Campaigns at 33 Universities
Chronicle of Higher Education (*requires registration)
November 4, 2009
The 33 American universities that are seeking to raise at least $1-billion collected a total of $324.1-million in gifts and pledges during the last month for which they had data available....
The 33 universities—each with its most recent total, last month's increase, the original goal, and the planned completion date—are as follows:
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, $1.58-billion as of September 30 (increase of $10-million in the last month); the goal is $3-billion by 2013....
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
17. Just Go for It! A Case Against Punting
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
November 4, 2009
Virtually every time the Pulaski Academy Bruins face fourth down, the prep school team from Little Rock, Ark., goes for it. No matter the distance.
And here's the thing -- the strategy works.
Coach Kevin Kelley and his Bruins won the state championship in Arkansas' third-largest classification last season and did not punt. This year, they are 7-2 with one punt -- the other team was so surprised the ball went 51 yards with no return....
While Kelley's approach is extreme, he is not the only one with statistics that suggest there's too much kicking going on in football.
A study by UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY ECONOMIST DAVID ROMER that came out in 2005 determined NFL coaches should go for it on fourth down far more often than they do....
[This story appeared in more than 100 sources nationwide, including the Los Angeles Times, Contra Costa Times, Sacramento Bee, and San Jose Mercury News] Full Story
18. How Berkeley Became Berkeley
How Berkeley took to the hills, promoted the good life, pioneered modern crime fighting, went Socialist, invented regional parks, rescued the bay, and more.
East Bay Express
October 21, 2009
It Came From Berkeley, Dave Weinstein's lively history of one American college town's contributions to American society, tells the story of how the city played a principal role in the following innovations: the atom bomb, the wet suit, the hot tub, yuppies, listener-sponsored radio, California cuisine, school integration, women's rights, prohibition, the commercialization of LSD, and more. In 57 separate chapters, Weinstein charted Berkeley's course from Republican-leaning "Athens of the Pacific" to the infamous "People's Republic of Berkeley" so hated by Fox News. Here is some of what he came up with. The rest is in his book, It Came from Berkeley: How Berkeley Changed the World, published by Gibbs Smith.
How Berkeley Took to the Hills
No one considering the history of Berkeley can ignore the hills — because nothing had more effect on the city's development, nor on its social and cultural life, than the hills. Without the hills, Berkeley would never have become Berkeley — a town that glories in the beauty of its wilderness and in wilderness everywhere.
The founders of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA knew they'd lucked upon the most beautiful site in the world, better than the Italian lakes and closer in spirit to the Olympian home of the gods. Poet Joaquin Miller agreed. "It sits in the lap of huge emerald hills, and in the heart of a young forest," Miller wrote in 1886, "with little mountain streams bawling and tumbling about, wild oats up to your waist in the playgrounds and walks, and a sense of largeness and strength grander than I ever felt in and about any university before."... Full Story
19. Saturday stargazing at Lawrence Hall of Science
San Francisco Chronicle
November 5, 2009
It's been 400 years since Galileo first pointed his telescope to the sky to look at the stars, and what better way to celebrate this International Year of Astronomy than by having a look at Jupiter, the planet that so mesmerized the great Italian astronomer.
The hills above UC BERKELEY offer a fine vantage point for stargazing, and every first and third Saturday of the month, the LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE turns down the lights on the main plaza and sets up telescopes so astronomers amateur or professional can enjoy the heavenly show - a terrific opportunity to introduce kids to navigating the night sky and basic constellations.
"Anyone, even children, can come to look at whatever celestial objects are out at that time through our telescopes," says JEFFREY NEE, A LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE EDUCATOR who says stepladders are set up so kids can look through the taller scopes. "There is usually at least one planet that is very exciting to see - currently it's Jupiter - along with any number of deep-sky objects such as galaxies, nebulae and some of the more interesting stars."...
"Like everything at the Lawrence Hall, stargazing is 100 percent interactive, with a staff member there to help visitors operate the telescopes, answer questions and guide the visitors," Nee says. "Occasionally we also get some amateur astronomers from around the Bay Area because they know we turn off the surrounding lights to help with telescope viewing, and they are always knowledgeable and just as helpful in letting visitors look through their own personal telescopes."...
8-10 p.m. Sat. Free. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, Berkeley. (510) 642-5132. www.lawrencehallofscience.org. Full Story
20. Students to Construct Giant California Roll
Hokubei
November 3, 2009
Berkeley — UC BERKELEY STUDENTS will build a giant California roll on Sunday, Nov. 8, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. on upper Sproul Plaza.
The students plan to construct a 330-foot-long roll, starting at the plaza fountain just north of the intersection of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue and going north to Sather Gate. Their goal is to best the current world record of 300 feet set in Maui in 2001....
More than 350 students — divided into 58 teams with names like Smashin' Sushi, AvoCALdoes, Cal Taiko Roll Masterz, and Nobunga — are signed up for the competition. They represent sororities, fraternities, service organizations, residence halls and other groups.
The event is being sponsored by UC BERKELEY'S CENTER FOR JAPANESE STUDIES. CAL DINING and numerous food vendors have donated ingredients. It will follow a morning symposium on the history and contemporary forms of Japanese food culture. Cal Dining staff members have provided team leaders with a crash course on sushi-making. ... Full Story