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Thursday, 19 November 2009
1. UC expected to raise student fees 32%
Regents are expected to approve yet another increase, arguing it's needed to avoid further course reductions and staff furloughs. The plan draws statewide protests. Police arrest 14 at UCLA.
Los Angeles Times
November 19, 2009
Caught between state funding cuts and rowdy student protests, a key committee of the University of California's Board of Regents on Wednesday reluctantly approved a two-step student fee increase that would raise undergraduate education costs more than $2,500, or 32%, by next fall.
If the action is endorsed as expected by the full board today, the annual cost of a UC education, not including campus-based fees, would rise to $10,302 -- about triple the UC costs of a decade ago. Room, board and books often add an additional $16,000....
In addition to a jump in basic fees for graduate students, those in professional schools will see an increase in the surcharges for their degrees ranging from $280 to nearly $5,700 more a year depending on their major and campus. For 2010-2011, fees for graduate students at UC BERKELEY'S BUSINESS SCHOOL would be $41,654, not including living expenses; for UCLA's law school, $40,522; for UC San Francisco's medical school, $31,095.... Full Story
2. Rage at UC fee hike in L.A., Berkeley protests
San Francisco Chronicle
November 19, 2009
Los Angeles - -- The UC regents are expected to put the final seal today on a hefty 32 percent tuition increase as students resume the protests that shut down their board meeting three times Wednesday and required campus police in riot gear to maintain calm....
Wednesday's vote by the regents' finance committee was also protested at UC BERKELEY, where about 1,000 students, faculty and university workers filled Sproul Plaza for a noontime rally. About 300 protesters turned out at UC Santa Cruz. The full board is to vote today....
At Berkeley, students at Sproul Plaza at noon were greeted by feisty pickets chanting, "No cuts, no fees, education should be free" and several signs, including one that read, "Welcome to UC ." Protesters then left Sproul Plaza and marched through downtown Berkeley.
The march passed Berkeley High School, then took an unexpected detour into Berkeley City College, where the protesters disrupted classes by climbing flights of stairs and filling the school's atrium area. The crowd stayed for about 10 minutes before heading back toward the UC campus. No arrests were made....
[Other stories on this topic appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Chronicle of Higher Education (link by subscription only), and KGO TV (link to video). An Associated Press story accompanied by a picture of protesters on UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza appeared in hundreds of sources nationwide] Full Story
3. Opinion L.A. Blog: Is a $26,000 UC education still a deal?
Los Angeles Times
November 18, 2009
That's $26,000 for a single year at a University of California campus, not the four usually needed to graduate. The UC Board of Regents voted today to increase basic education fees for undergraduates by 32% to more than $10,000 for the 20010-11 academic year. Throw in the roughly $16,000 per year required for room, board and books, and the UC system fees approach $30,000 per year -- and feel a lot like the cost of an Ivy League education with few of the perks. (None of this is to say, mind you, that the regents won't be forced to raise fees again in 2010, with the state facing a massive budget deficit of $21 billion over the next year and a half.)
My days as a UC BERKELEY UNDERGRADUATE, from 2000-05, saw a series of fee increases, spurred in part by an agreement in 2004 struck between then-university system President Robert C. Dynes and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The so-called compact (it wasn't a contract, much to Sacramento's benefit) promised long-term, predictable increases in state funding for the UC system in exchange for annual student fee hikes. I'll admit that fees when I started school in 2000 seemed generously low (they were less than $4,000 per year), so when they started going up a few years later there was some mild resistance by students but a consensus nonetheless that most of us could afford to pay more. With each fee increase came the mantra that UC was still very much a bargain for students, a contention that rang true at the time.
But I wonder: With fees having doubled in less than a decade, is a UC education still a deal? Is there a student-fee ceiling at which it isn't? I'm interested in hearing your views, especially if you're a student at a UC campus or a parent of a student. Feel free to post your thoughts below.... Full Story
4. Aspiring Professors Rethink Career Path Amid UC Budget Woes
KCBS Radio
November 19, 2009
Berkeley, Calif. (KCBS) -- The profession of teaching looks very unattractive amid the fee hikes, layoffs and program cutbacks in the U.C. system, say some doctoral students.
U.C. BERKELEY ETHNIC STUDIES DOCTORAL STUDENT JUAN HERRERA wondered if he has a future as a professor in the U.C. system as he stood in Sproul Plaza on Wednesday watching a rally protesting impending 32 percent fee hikes.
“It’s not only about the lack of academic jobs, but just the lack of respect for academics and students that’s being fostered with these economic cuts,” he told KCBS reporter Dave Padilla.
He’s not the only one having second thoughts about whether a life in the academy after the Ph.D. is a viable path in the present climate.
FELLOW DOCTORAL STUDENT YOMAIRA FIGUEROA said she already sees the affects of fee hikes and cutbacks in the classes she now teaches. “Instead of having 30 students, we have 40 and 45 students in classes.”...
[Link to audio] Full Story
5. Bay Area Blog: Life and Times of a U.C. Student Striker
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
November 18, 2009
Name: RAMON QUINTERO
Age: 32
Campus: BERKELEY
Year: SENIOR
Major: Geography
Hometown: Whittier, Calif.
Mr. Quintero, who is Mexican-American, was among the students who met with [UC BERKELEY CHANCELLOR] ROBERT J. BIRGENEAU last week to complain about the proposed 32 percent fee increases which were approved by the Board of Regents this afternoon.
Just before he boarded the bus, Mr. Quintero said:
I think it’s necessary to have a large number of students down there to show that it’s not just the unions, it’s the students being affected. In about eight years my daughter will be applying to school so I have to do this, you know?
He currently lives in a mobile home because, he says, he cannot afford to live in the $1,000-plus-a-month campus housing he was originally assigned by U.C. Berkeley. He had hoped his job as a “Cal Ambassador” — a student outreach coordinator who helps counsel and recruit junior college prospects — would help pay for his final year, but the university cut out his job.... Full Story
6. UC Berkeley Art Museum rebuild still on
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
November 18, 2009
Bay Area art lovers will not be stepping into a futuristic, $200 million UC Berkeley museum designed by celebrated Toyko architect Toyo Ito, but they still will have a new museum in the city's downtown within the next several years, officials with the BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE said Wednesday.
"Berkeley is not going to get a $200 million museum right now," said LAWRENCE RINDER, DIRECTOR OF BAM/PFA, noting that fundraising for the museum has been challenging amid the recession.
The university, which recently has taken such measures as reducing class sizes, instituting employee furloughs and increasing fees to deal with budget reductions, has failed to raise the money needed to build the Ito-designed museum. Rinder said that campus and museum leadership decided to modify the project after raising just $81 million in cash and pledges for the Ito building....
"The creation of a new home for the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in downtown Berkeley continues to be a crucial step in UC Berkeley's long-standing commitment to the visual arts and to engagement with our broader community," UC BERKELEY CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU said in a statement.
"While the architectural plans will change, what will not change is our shared goal of building a dynamic, welcoming, and seismically safe new museum at the corner of Center and Oxford streets."...
[This story also appeared in the Oakland Tribune. Another appeared in Art Daily] Full Story
7. Berkeley eases limits on noise
San Francisco Chronicle
November 19, 2009
Berkeley hills neighbors were screeching mad Wednesday after the City Council unanimously agreed to relax the noise limits for downtown nightclubs, sending the thumps and howls of late-night music wafting uphill to their homes.
"Talk about making a place less livable," said Panoramic Hill resident Ann Slaby. "This is unconscionable. Noise definitely has health consequences, and this really decreases quality of life."...
The city has been trying for years to attract more arts and entertainment downtown, to join Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company and numerous restaurants that cater to FACULTY, STAFF AND STUDENTS FROM UC BERKELEY, a block away. Raising the noise limit was critical to retain and attract more entertainment venues, said John Caner, director of the Downtown Berkeley Association....
The Panoramic Hill Association - which previously made headlines when it filed suit against UC Berkeley over the new sports training center next to Memorial Stadium - is considering how to fight the new ordinance. They'll have one more chance to protest when the ordinance returns to the council on Dec. 8 for final consideration.... Full Story
8. Consumer Electronics: California approves new standards on energy-hungry TVs
The California Energy Commission votes 5-0 in favor of the nation's first efficiency regulations for televisions of up to 58 inches sold in the state. The stricter rules take effect Jan. 1, 2011.
Los Angeles Times
November 19, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento and West Hollywood - California is putting big-screen television sets on a diet.
Starting in 13 months, new TV sets will have to meet energy-efficiency standards that slash the amount of electricity they consume. The regulations also will lower owners' monthly electric bills.
The first-in-the-nation criteria, approved unanimously Wednesday by the five-member California Energy Commission, is aimed at cutting the amount of electricity used by new high-definition TVs of up to 58 inches by a third starting Jan. 1, 2011. More stringent rules that take effect Jan. 1, 2013, would create a cumulative 50% power savings....
Since the sale of flat-panel televisions began to rocket early in the decade, TV-related power usage has more than tripled to 10 billion kilowatt-hours per year, accounting for nearly 10% of residential electricity consumption, said Commissioner ARTHUR ROSENFELD, A NUCLEAR PHYSICIST AND UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR....
Commissioner Rosenfeld said commission regulations have worked well in the past. In the 1970s, he said, the average refrigerator in California consumed 2,000 kilowatt-hours per year of electricity. Now, a typical refrigerator, which costs less and has more consumer-friendly features, uses just 400 kilowatt-hours per year.... Full Story
9. Thin-Film Solar with High Efficiency
Solexant is printing inorganic solar cells with nanomaterials.
Technology Review
November 19, 2009
Solar cells made from cheap nanocrystal-based inks have the potential to be as efficient as the conventional inorganic cells currently used in solar panels, but can be printed less expensively. Solexant, a company in San Jose, CA, is currently manufacturing solar cells to test the technology. In order to compete with other thin-film solar companies, Solexant is banking on simpler, cheaper printing processes and materials, as well as lower initial capital costs to build its plants. The company expects to sell modules for $1 per watt, with efficiencies above 10 percent.
The company has licensed methods for growing nanocrystals and making them into inks from PAUL ALIVISATOS, PROFESSOR OF NANOTECHNOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY and interim director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. (Alivisatos is on Solexant's board of directors.) Alivisatos says the advantage of these materials is their potential to combine low cost with high performance. Solar cells made from crystalline silicon are efficient at converting sunlight into electricity, but they're expensive to manufacture. To bring down the cost, companies have been developing thin-film solar cells from semiconductors that don't match crystalline silicon's performance but are much less expensive to make.... Full Story
10. Katrina Damage Due to "Monumental" Neglect, Judge Rules
National Geographic Online
November 19, 2009
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding in Hurricane Katrina, a decision that could make the federal government vulnerable to billions of dollars in claims....
Speaking in May, months before the ruling, BOB BEA, A CIVIL ENGINEER AND LEVEE EXPERT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, told National Geographic News that the federal government could be on the hook as much as two trillion dollars....
UC Berkeley's Bea testified during the trial. He said in May that the outcome would have "major implications for flood protection in the rest of the U.S."
For instance, Bea examined levees in parts of Missouri and Iowa, which failed in July 2008 and caused major flooding. Bea described most of the flood-protection levees he saw in the Midwest as "ratty piles of dirt"—similar to those he'd seen in St. Bernard Parish....
The government is expected to appeal, and UC Berkeley's Bea also predicted in May that the case could go all the way to the Supreme Court. Full Story
11. How Humanlike Was "Ardi"?
A second look a the 4.4-million-year-old primate that has sparked debate about upright walking and what it means to be in the human tribe
Scientific American
November 19, 2009
For such a petite creature, the 1.2-meter-tall "Ardi" (Ardipithecus ramidus) has made big waves in the paleoanthropology world. The momentous find—announced 15 years ago and formally described in Science this October—has deepened academic debates about when bipedalism evolved, what our last common ancestor with chimpanzees looked like, and how some ancient primates gave way to modern humans.
"This is a fascinating fossil no matter what side you come down on," says William Jungers, a professor and chairman of the Department of Anatomical Sciences at the Stony Brook University Medical Center in Long, Island, N.Y. The 11-paper Science analysis has, indeed, sharpened more differences than it has smoothed over.
The authors of the papers, led by TIM WHITE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, assert that Ardipithecus was "an effective upright walker" and that it "resolves many uncertainties about early human evolution, including the nature of the last common ancestor." But many others in the field propose that some of these statements may be overblown....
Regardless of the eagerness to lay eyes on Ardi and the other specimens as well as lingering questions about the species's status as a hominin, most researchers applaud the significant work involved in excavating and analyzing the fossils. "What those guys did was pretty amazing," Jungers says. The extensive documentation of Ar. ramidus' context has "set a new standard," which, he says, is "truly extraordinary." Full Story
12. “The Card Game”
New Doc Investigates History of Credit Card Industry and Proposals for Reform
Democracy Now! [Radio/TV program]
November 18, 2009
We take a look at how the consumer loan industry continues to squeeze customers. Last year the Federal Reserve Board announced new rules for banks to remove unfair credit card practices, and in May of this year Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. In a joint FRONTLINE/New York Times investigation, The Card Game, longtime investigative journalist and FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman talked to industry insiders, lobbyists, politicians and consumer advocates about how to reform the way the consumer loan industry has done business for decades.
Guest:
LOWELL BERGMAN, producer and reporter for the PBS documentary series "Frontline" and a PROFESSOR AT THE BERKELEY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM....
[Link to audio, video, and transcript] Full Story
13. Networking for Social Responsibility
Companies Increasingly Turn to Business Schools to Find Ways to Build Good Practices
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
November 19, 2009
The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship created an invite-only online community this month for its member companies to directly share best practices on corporate responsibility.
In less than three weeks, 314 members joined a group of 226 who tested the system for six months. Center administrators expect this kind of exchange will attract even more companies to join the center—and pay as much as $10,000 a year for membership....
For some companies, a renewed—or new—focus on social responsibility is necessary to build a stronger reputation locally and abroad. KELLIE MCELHANEY, AN ADJUNCT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY'S HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, says this kind of brand management can help positively shape a company's public image. A large part of her consulting in the past 18 months has been focused on helping companies highlight their social efforts to build their brand. She's currently working with a large retailer to highlight its longtime commitment to ethical products....
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
14. California's budget woes will continue for years, report says
Tax receipts have leveled off, but revenue won't bounce back until the 2014-15 budget year, according to the chief budget analyst. Near term, the state faces a nearly $21-billion deficit.
Los Angeles Times
November 19, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento -- Despite an economy on the mend, California's budget woes will drag deep into the next decade, according to a report released Wednesday by the state's chief budget analyst....
Budget shortfalls have reemerged less than four months after lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger struck a summer deal, which contained accounting gimmicks and rosy assumptions that have failed to pan out.
"The thing about smoke and mirrors is they are usually short-term solutions, and they come back to bite you the next year," said JOHN ELLWOOD, A PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY AT UC BERKELEY.... Full Story
15. Marketplace Op-Ed: Asset-driven recovery still needs work
NPR
November 18, 2009
...How can the stock market hit new highs when unemployment continues to hit new highs? Simple. Corporate earnings are up because companies are cutting costs. And the biggest single cost is their payrolls. So they let people go and, presto, balance sheets look much better, and stock prices rise.
...The great disconnect between the stock market and jobs is pushing stock prices way out of line with the real economy. That's not sustainable. No economy can recover without consumers. But consumers -- facing mounting job losses as well as pay cuts -- are in no mood to buy and won't be for some time.
Now, I'm not predicting a major correction or double dip any time soon, but watch your wallets.... Full Story