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A special project of Berkeley Law’s International Human Rights Law Clinic and the campus’s Undocumented Student Program has helped 103 Berkeley students decide whether to apply for a special immigration category that allows them to work legally and to avoid deportation. Most have won approval under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
Politics & public policy archive
Probing the depths of poll work
November 5, 2012: What does it take to conduct a fair, accurate and transparent election? Staff at the Election Administration Research Center, at Berkeley Law, study this in detail, sometimes climbing into the trenches themselves to see how the process really works. Two EARC researchers discuss what they’ve learned and what they’ll be watching for on Election Day.
New GOTV efforts could help Latino voters achieve political potential, says researcher
October 31, 2012: Latino voters could realize their political potential with a few changes in get-out-the-vote efforts, according to a UC Berkeley political scientist.
Students mull taxes, fee hikes and Prop. 30
October 31, 2012: Opposing views of Proposition 30 got an airing Wednesday evening at a tightly structured student-sponsored forum. The proposition, supported by Governor Brown, would raise revenues for education and public safety, through temporary income and sales-tax increases.
Food Day report: Minimum-wage hike would raise food prices pennies, help millions
October 24, 2012: A new report released today, national Food Day 2012, says that a proposal pending in Congress to raise the minimum wage would increase retail food prices for American consumers by about 10 cents a day, while helping nearly 8 million food workers and 21 million other workers. Campus celebrates Food Day.
Grad Division posts election resources
October 18, 2012: With the Nov. 9 election just around the corner, the Graduate Division offers several handy links, including information on voter registration. The deadline for that is Monday, Oct. 22.
BSA hosts Prop. 30 discussion Friday, Oct. 19
October 17, 2012: Campus staff are invited to Berkeley Staff Assembly’s Fall welcome event, from noon to 1:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 19, in 60 Barrows. The event features UC’s “Onward California Mobile Tour” and an information session on Proposition 30.
Survey shows program boosts Latino parents’ child knowledge, confidence
October 16, 2012: Researchers at UC Berkeley report promising results from a five-year-old parenting program, Abriendo Puertas (“Opening Doors”), which significantly helps Latino parents prepare their young children to succeed in school.
USAID chief lauds Blum Center as model in search for global solutions
October 11, 2012:
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah visited campus and encouraged students to join the search for open source solutions to pressing global problems.
IGS guide to state’s 11 ballot measures
October 11, 2012: What do taxes, human traffiking, GMO labeling and the death penalty have in common? In the upcoming election, California voters face ballot propositions on all these issues (and more). Help is on the way. See the California Choices online guide for a wealth of resources compiled by the campus’s Institute of Governmental Studies Library.
Higher ed pays off handsomely for the state, according to new study from CHSE
October 3, 2012: The benefits of investing in higher education extend well beyond the direct payoff for students and include substantial gains to the state of California, according to new research from the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley.
Reports shows political preferences of California’s Asian Americans
October 2, 2012: sian Americans, who account for 10 percent of registered voters in California, support a tax measure proposed by Governor Jerry Brown, are closely divided on the death penalty ballot measure, overwhelmingly support affirmative action, and support tax increases on high earners to close the federal budget deficit, according to two new reports.
Voters act on performance, not policy, new book says
October 2, 2012: Politicians may focus on policy issues in hopes of persuading voters, but a new book by a UC Berkeley political scientist says that’s not what matters most to voters.
Two Berkeley alums win MacArthur Fellowships
October 2, 2012: Two UC Berkeley alums, one an Oakland resident who has developed systems that help break the cycle of poverty, the other a leader in geriatric and chronic disease, won MacArthur “genius awards” for 2012.
The ‘Steep’ rise of the Tea Party
October 1, 2012: A new collection of scholarly essays edited by Lawrence Rosenthal, executive director of UC Berkeley’s nonpartisan Center for Right-Wing Studies, and program director Christine Trost takes a hard look at the hard right.
New book marks 25th anniversary of classic on race, ethnicity
September 28, 2012: First published in 1986, Racial Formation in the United States is considered a classic in the literature on race and ethnicity. UC Press has just published Racial Formation in the 21st Century. The new book marks the 25th anniversary of the seminal work by Michael Omi, professor of ethnic studies at Berkeley, and Professor Howard Winant of UC Santa Barbara.
New survey outlines political views of Asian Americans
September 25, 2012: Asian Americans likely to vote in November strongly prefer Barack Obama over Mitt Romney, but a large portion of voters – nearly one-third – remain undecided, according to two new reports.
A violin gifted by Nazi propagandist keeps its secrets 
September 24, 2012: In February, 1943, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ceremoniously gifted an 18th-century violin to a young Japanese musician. The origins of the instrument remain a mystery. Violin maker Carla Shapreau, an adjunct faculty at Berkeley Law, writes on Nazi plunder of fine art in a feature article in The New York Times arts section.
Poll shows Proposition 30 with strongest support of all California tax initiatives
September 19, 2012: A new poll of California voters, conducted by the Institute of Governmental Affairs and the Field Poll, outlines the positions of three competing tax measures on the November ballot.
UC Berkeley experts, events and Election 2012
September 19, 2012: A host of upcoming events featuring UC Berkeley experts will explore various facets of the November election.
Meng So: A campus voice for the undocumented
September 18, 2012: Meng So arrived in the Bay Area the way many people do — as a child, with parents fleeing strife in their homeland. For the next dozen years, the Sos lacked full legal status. Their struggles to provide for the family, So says, inform his work as UC Berkeley’s Undocumented Student Program coordinator, the only position of its kind at any university in the country.
Prop. 30 project set to rapidly expand knowledge through social networks
September 18, 2012: How can knowledge be spread rapidly across large populations using social media? To explore this question, researchers at UC Berkeley are launching a new website that allows visitors to spread the word quickly about important issues.
Sept. 21 conference explores California’s fiscal crisis
September 13, 2012: The Institute of Governmental Studies is sponsoring a Sept. 21 conference to explore “California’s Fiscal Crisis: Prospects for Deficit Reduction and Pension Reform in the Golden State.”
What California needs to do about electric cars (hint: more)
September 11, 2012: Electric cars are key to California’s energy and clean-air future, but more needs to be done to make consumers aware of their performance, to reduce their cost and to build an easy-to-use charging network, according to a new report from the Berkeley and UCLA law schools.
Election 2012: New app springing from Berkeley estimates financial impact on you, your community, the nation
September 10, 2012: Voters interested in what the November presidential election will mean for their own finances, and for those in their community and the nation as a whole, can get a clear visual picture from the latest update of the Politify website and app, created by UC Berkeley students and a big winner in last spring’s CITRIS Big Ideas contest.
Constitution Day events to assess state of the nation today
September 7, 2012: The Berkeley campus will mark Constitution Day 2012 with two events on current affair and their relevance to the nation’s founding document. The first, on Wednesday, Sept. 12, looks at the history and future of mass incarceration in the U.S. The second, a week later, takes up the Obama presidency, the Tea Party and the future of American politics.
Book on health, safety, enviromental policy honored
August 30, 2012: Business professor David Vogel has won the Academy of Management Organization and the Natural Environment Division Book Award for his book The Politics of Precaution: Regulating Health, Safety, and Environmental Risks in Europe and the United States.
Law school launches center on California’s Constitution
August 30, 2012: Ambitious plans are in the works for Berkeley Law’s new California Constitution Center. First up this fall: a moot court for attorneys with cases pending before the Supreme Court of California. The center will also develop scholarship on complex policy issues that arise under the state charter.
Where are the ‘job creators’? A Labor Day conversation
August 30, 2012: Where you live has a lot to do with whether you’re employed, and how, says Enrico Moretti, author of The New Geography of Jobs. The UC Berkeley economist shares insights on employment, salaries, tax cuts and growing inequalities based on location.
Journalism profs discuss a top GOP donor under scrutiny
August 28, 2012: Investigative reporters Lowell Bergman and Matt Isaacs were interviewed recently concerning Sheldon Adelson— a leading donor to a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney — and the federal investigation of his business for alleged bribery of Chinese officials. The School of Journalism faculty members appeared on Michael Krasny’s KQED Radio show, “Forum.”
California’s temporary workers face increased likelihood of poverty, says new study
August 28, 2012: California’s temporary workers are twice as likely as other employees in the state to live in poverty, receive food stamps and be on Medicaid, according to a new report from UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education.
