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Global warming has driven Yosemite’s alpine chipmunks to higher ground, prompting a startling decline in the species’ genetic diversity. The genetic erosion occurred in the relatively short span of 90 years, highlighting the rapid threat changing climate can pose to a species, and putting the alpine chipmunk on a trajectory toward extinction.
State & local archive
Cal Corps’ Megan Voorhees garners statewide honor
February 22, 2012: Megan Voorhees, director of Berkeley’s Cal Corps Public Service Center, has been named winner of the 2012 Richard E. Cone Award. The California Campus Compact, a statewide professional association, bestows the honor annually on an individual who has made important contributions to partnerships between communities and institutions of higher education.
Through engineering prof, girls meet ‘the science of better’
February 16, 2012: Rhonda Righter, professor of industrial engineering, is tackling a new assignment: serving as a volunteer role model to 35 middle-school girls. During a recent presentation at Oakland’s American Indian Public Charter School, she talked about her field: “Industrial engineering is all about making things better,” Righter said. “We’re like detectives who solve puzzles.”
On-site worker rescue plan urged for confined spaces
February 13, 2012: Many employers rely upon public fire departments to rescue workers in confined spaces. That is a mistake, according to a UC Berkeley analysis of hundreds of worker deaths over 13 years in the United States. Companies need to station trained, rescue personnel on site so they can pull workers out within moments in an emergency, the study concludes.
With a foothold at Berkeley, ‘engaged scholarship’ goes where it’s needed 
February 8, 2012: Urban forester Lara Roman, a Berkeley grad student, is conducting multi-year research designed to help a Sacramento tree-planting program maximize cooling shade for the area’s hot summers. “Engaged scholarship” like Roman’s, increasingly popular with students, is part of the campus’s DNA. New forms of institutional support are helping it flourish.
City of Berkeley lauds zero-waste stadium initiative
February 6, 2012: At a Feb. 4 basketball game, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates presented a city proclamation lauding Cal Athletics for its trial-run recycling efforts at Haas Pavilion this season, and “its commitment to the goal of achieving zero waste at California Memorial Stadium” when that facility reopens this fall.
Officials successfully conclude Strawberry Creek cleanup effort
January 31, 2012: Authorities announced today (Wednesday, Feb. 1) the successful conclusion of diesel cleanup efforts at Strawberry Creek.
California native-plant classic gets a 21st-century makeover 
January 30, 2012: For California botany, The Jepson Manual is the authoritative reference book. Now the super-sized tome has been revised to incorporate a wealth of new knowledge about the state’s huge diversity of native plants. Scholars and staff at the Jepson Herbarium oversaw its 2nd edition, published by UC Press.
UC’s green investments pay off
January 20, 2012: The University of California is saving $32 million a year on energy and remains the higher-education leader in adopting green-building standards. Those achievements and others are outlined in the “2011 UC Annual Report on Sustainable Practices.”
Occupy Cal returns
January 19, 2012: About 40 students and others staged what they called the “Spring Into Action” rally Thursday at Sproul Plaza, relaunching the Occupy Cal movement’s protest against a wide range of issues, including rising tuition and state disinvestment in public higher education.
Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life to open Jan. 22
January 19, 2012: The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, the latest addition to the city’s burgeoning downtown arts and culture district, is opening to the public on Sunday, Jan. 22.
UCTC receives funding for new transportation research
January 19, 2012: The University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) on the UC Berkeley campus is overseeing a new research consortium of five other UC and four Cal State University campuses that just received a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation and a matching amount from California’s Department of Transportation.
City redistricting deferred, charter amendment planned
January 18, 2012: Redistricting in the City of Berkeley will be deferred to 2013, following a 7-2 City Council vote on Jan. 17. The council also agreed to draft an amendment to the City Charter, for consideration by the voters in November, to allow new district boundaries to deviate from those set in 1986. A group of UC Berkeley students have been agitating for at least one student-majority district. Berkeleyside reports.
Diesel-truck emissions in Oakland fall sharply, study finds
January 17, 2012: Strict new emission standards for diesel trucks have reduced their emissions of unhealthy pollutants by half at the bustling Port of Oakland, says a team of researchers led by Rob Harley, professor of civil and environmental engineering. Writing in Environmental Science & Technology, Harley details improvements made as a result of aggressive new state regulations.
Media Advisory: Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life open house Jan. 22
January 12, 2012:
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life to welcome the public to its new home with a Jan. 22 open house.
A taste of Chez Panisse history
December 23, 2011: It’s tough to rustle up a new story about the most written-about restaurant in Berkeley, but California magazine has dipped deep into the Chez Panisse archive at the Bancroft Library and come up with a fascinating look at its early days.
Creek cleanup and notification continue
December 23, 2011: UC Berkeley officials, working with federal, state and local agencies, are distributing flyers to property owners who live along Strawberry Creek to bring them up to date on efforts to clean up diesel fuel that spilled on campus and into the creek on Dec. 10.
Berkeley 2011 — the year in pictures
December 22, 2011: Beyond the protests, the story — as always — is one of engagement, passion and perseverance in the face of challenges, whether institutional or personal.
State should change tax code, invest more in education, professors tell Assembly
December 8, 2011: The widening gap between the rich and poor is largely the result of government policies, and the state should institute a more progressive tax code and invest more in education to help reverse the trend, UC Berkeley professors told lawmakers in Sacramento on Wednesday. Read the San Francisco Chronicle story.
Taxation, citizenship, protest and the future of UC
December 7, 2011: Three themes — taxation, citizenship and protest — were explored at the Dec. 6 Campus Forum on the Future of Public Universities, the second in a series of public conversations sponsored by campus deans. Many called for UC to form alliances with other institutions affected by public disinvestment.
‘Everyday Dogs’ book depicts allure of man’s best friend
December 6, 2011: New book drawn from the Bancroft Library’s vast Pictorial Collection celebrates the powerful connections between people and pets.
In architecture prof’s SoMa loft, a vibrant mix of life and work
December 2, 2011: Thai-born designer/artist Raveevarn Choksombatchai replaced a ramshackle San Francisco teardown with a prize-winning urban home. The New York Times’ Home & Garden section offers a brief profile and a multimedia tour.
Does raising the retirement age increase inequality?
December 2, 2011: Raising the retirement age may seem sensible, given rising life expectancy. But many working-class families and African Americans may not live to retirement age, “making these proposals profoundly unfair,” Ken Jacobs and Nari Rhee, of the UC Berkeley Labor Center, write in the Sacramento Bee.
Daily Cal special feature delves into DREAM Act
November 30, 2011: A team of student journalists explores the California DREAM Act, which grants undocumented students access to publicly funded financial aid, in a special project of The Daily Californian. The multimedia package, “Dream State,” looks at political, historical, financial and personal dimensions of a controversial issue.
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awards $6 million for earthquake early warning research
November 29, 2011: UC Berkeley, Caltech and the University of Washington will each receive $2 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to conduct research on an earthquake early warning system that seismologists hope to create along the Pacific Coast.
Fire guts Southside apartment building; resources available to fire victims
November 19, 2011:
Late Friday, a fire destroyed an apartment building at Telegraph and Haste. There are no reports of injuries, but we believe the building may have been home for some of our students. The campus is working on temporary housing for any students who have been displaced.
Postponed regents meeting now set for Nov. 28
November 18, 2011: The UC Board of Regents meeting, which the Board postponed, citing public-safety concerns, has been rescheduled for Monday, Nov. 28. UC staff and members of the public in attendance on four campuses — UC San Francisco-Mission Bay, UCLA, UC Davis and UC Merced — will be interconnected via teleconference. The meeting will be streamed live online.
High sea-level rise could wipe out Bay Area marshes over the next century
November 18, 2011: An extreme rise in sea levels combined with low sediment availability over the next 50 to 100 years could wipe out 93 percent of the tidal marshes in the San Francisco Bay, according to a new study led by PRBO Conservation Science and co-authored by UC Berkeley researchers. The researchers call for action now to protect the marshes against such a catastrophic scenario.
Media Advisory: Public policy professor, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich to deliver Savio Memorial Lecture on class warfare
November 8, 2011: he University of California, Berkeley’s 15th annual Mario Savio Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Robert Reich, former U.S. labor secretary and professor of public policy at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, on the topic of class warfare.
Big Ideas for Jobs Creation: A Q&A with Karen Chapple
November 7, 2011: Thirteen big ideas for programs and policies to create badly needed jobs in the United States were unveiled Monday at a Washington, D.C., briefing.
