Category Archives: UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley shooting ruled to be “suicide by police”
The fatal shooting of UC Berkeley student Christopher Travis was likely to have been “suicide by police”, according to Richard Lyons, dean of the Haas School of Business, where the shooting took place on November 15.
In an email to students, faculty and staff today, Lyons wrote that the UC Police Department had nearly concluded its investigation of the incident. “While we will likely never know Chris’s intent, [the police department's] leading theory, based on his history of recent … Continue reading »
How do you spell Nobel Prize? At Cal, incorrectly
Berkeleyside reader Sandy Hamburg was walking through UC Berkeley shortly after it was announced in October that Professor Saul Perlmutter had been awarded a Nobel Prize for physics. As Prof. Perlmutter himself put it, one of the best perks of the prize is a permanent parking space at the car-challenged university. Hamburg laughed when she saw this sign, as it spelled Nobel incorrectly, transposing the e and the l.
Then a few weeks later Hamburg returned to the … Continue reading »
Record $244,000 in grants to 400 Berkeley teachers
The Berkeley Public Education Foundation (BPEF) announced this week a record total of $244,000 in grants funding over 400 teachers in Berkeley public schools.
“We’re counted on by teachers who are now looking under every rock for funding,” said Molly Fraker, executive director of BPEF. “There’s not any public funding left for this kind of thing.”
The largest award is a single $44,000 grant to complete a two-year effort to build permanent book collections in every classroom throughout Berkeley’s 11 elementary schools, done in conjunction with the school district. But awards range widely, with most being for a few hundred dollars for projects like teaching nutrition while making smoothies for preschoolers at Hopkins, to purchasing a color printer for visual materials at the Arts Magnet, to plants and supplies for the school garden and chickens at John Muir Elementary. The complete list can be downloaded as a spreadsheet. … Continue reading »
Mayor’s chief of staff leaves City Hall for UC Berkeley post
Julie Sinai, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates for the last nine years, will be the new Director of Local Government and Community Relations at UC Berkeley starting in January.
“The areas I’m really hoping to be engaged in are developing the innovation, economic and educative pathways for the East Bay,” Sinai said. “There’s a momentum around those issues that wasn’t there a few years ago,”. Sinai cited projects like the East Bay Green Corridor and the recently opened Skydeck from the Berkeley Startup Cluster.
From the start of his first term in 2002, Bates passed up the mayor’s salary (he receives a pension from his two decades as a state assemblyman representing Berkeley) and used the funds to hire Sinai. Sinai was the mayor’s policy advisor on youth, education, jobs, health, social service issues, and inter-government relations. She had previously worked for the Berkeley Unified School District. … Continue reading »
UC police dismantle tent city on steps of Sproul Hall
About 50 UC police officers dressed in riot gear descended upon the Occupy Cal encampment Thursday morning and rousted sleeping students and protesters from the steps of Sproul Hall.
The police arrived at 3:30 am and issued an order for those in the encampment to dismantle their tents. Some students willingly complied with the command, but others moved too slowly, prompting police to take down some tents and cart them away.
“They came in and gave us five minutes notice and then took over,” said Shawndeez Jadali, a freshman in Peace and Conflict Studies. “We got a good number of tents out. We need them and we are going to bring them back.”
Two students were arrested in the early morning raid, including one with a cat, according to other students. … Continue reading »
After night of camping, weary Cal protesters settle in
A few dozen bleary eyed protestors who spent Tuesday night camped on the steps of Sproul Hall vowed Wednesday morning to stay in UC Berkeley’s main square as long as possible, even though UC Berkeley police announced numerous times Wednesday morning that the tent encampment was illegal.
Now that police have rousted the Occupy Wall Street encampments in New York’s Zuccotti Park, and at the Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, it is more important than ever to maintain a physical presence at Cal, some protesters argued. For that reason, many declined to go over to San Francisco today to join other Occupy protesters in picketing the offices of some of the UC Regents. … Continue reading »
Shaken Cal Chancellor recalls Kent State, Virginia Tech
[See update at foot of story.]
“Now we’re there along with Kent State and Virginia Tech,” said a visibly upset Chancellor Robert Birgeneau at the end of a press conference today about the shooting at the Haas School of Business. No students, faculty or staff were injured in the incident — the only injury was to the unidentified suspect.
The chancellor received news of the incident at his home, following a lunchtime meeting there. He had thought the main focus of the day would be the Occupy Cal protests. “We’re very pleased with the way the students have conducted themselves today,” Birgeneau told the press conference. “I have confidence in our students that they’ll stay focused on the important issues, which are disinvestment in higher education by our state and higher tuitions.”
But the first shooting on the Cal campus for over 20 years changed the tenor of the day.
According to UC Police Chief Mitch Celaya, there is no evidence that the suspect had any connection to the protests. Throughout his description of the events leading to the shooting, he cautioned that his department was at a “very preliminary stage” of the investigation. The press conference was held at 4:00pm, less than two hours after the incident. … Continue reading »
After Oakland eviction, Occupy focus shifts to UC Berkeley
With the dismantling by police of the Occupy Oakland camp early this morning, the Occupy focus has shifted to UC Berkeley where students are preparing to hold a general strike on Tuesday. Reports suggest that Occupy Oakland protesters may march to Berkeley to join Occupy Cal demonstrations tomorrow too.
But plans by protesters to demonstrate at a Regents’ meeting scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday this week at Mission Bay have been foiled, as the meeting has been rescheduled at the advice of law enforcement officials.
Meanwhile, the violence used by police on November 9th continues to draw comment. Writing in the Huffington Post, cultural commentator Jesse Kornbluth points to reports that say several UC Berkeley faculty were assaulted in the clashes, as well as students. They included 70-year-old former Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Hass, and English Professors Celeste Langan and Geoffrey O’Brien.
Cal professor Robert Reich, who is delivering the Mario Savio Memorial Lecture tomorrow, has agreed to move its venue from the Pauley Ballroom to the Mario Savio Steps in Sproul Plaza at the request of the Occupy Cal General Assembly. … Continue reading »
Alice Waters, Robert Reich talk up a delicious revolution
It was all very Alice: a fire pit outside, a large screen projecting Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on the stage, and, next to her chair, an artfully arranged assortment of fresh-picked fruit delivered to her door by farmer friends.
Alice Waters, a one-time Montessori teacher, wanted to stimulate her students’ senses. So, last Tuesday, that’s how she kicked off her turn to talk at the Edible Education 101 fall lecture series at UC Berkeley, funded by her own Chez Panisse Foundation.
And, in an inspired piece of programming, the woman with a big, broad vision for food reform in schools and beyond, who speaks in a small, wispy way and sometimes appears uncomfortable, even a little lost alone in the spotlight, invited the jovial Cal public policy professor and economics expert Robert Reich to join her on stage for a conversation in front of a close to capacity crowd at Wheeler Hall. … Continue reading »
Field trip highlights programs in food-forward Berkeley
Tomorrow, Bay Area Green Tours co-hosts a food field trip spotlighting some of the best of Berkeley’s alternative food systems. It’s part of the 15th Annual Community Food Security Coalition Conference, which runs today through Tuesday in Oakland. The Community Food Security Coalition is a national nonprofit dedicated to creating a food movement that is healthy, sustainable, and just.
The national conference draws sustainable food advocates, anti-hunger experts, and food policy wonks from around the country. The Food Sovereignty tour, which is open to the public (though now sold out), introduces participants to community food gardens, farmers’ markets, school food, and alternative food businesses in this town, which, of course, is well known for its food-forward agenda. … Continue reading »
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