SubscribeWith state budget negotiations in full swing, members of the UC Board of Regents are joining students in Sacramento today (May 15) to call on lawmakers to reinvest in public higher education. Regents will remain in the capital on Wednesday, holding their first board meeting there since 1993.
State & local archive
Regents call on state to reinvest
May 15, 2012:
Comerio leads national roundtable on integrated disaster recovery
March 19, 2012: Northern California experts, including UC Berkeley architecture professor Mary Comerio, are heading up a national roundtable on improving responses after major disasters.
UC grad students take their research to Sacramento
March 15, 2012: A delegation of 20 UC graduate students and deans traveled to Sacramento March 14 to give lawmakers a message — that their research is of vital important not only to the future of the UC, but to the state and nation.
Campus administration sends message to D.A. about November-protest charges
March 14, 2012: On March 11, Chancellor Birgeneau and Executive Vice-Chancellor and Provost Breslauer sent a letter to the Alameda County District Attorney’s office, concerning charges brought against four students and one faculty member arrested during the Nov. 9, 2011 protest outside Sproul Hall.
Dignitaries dedicate campus’s renovated Matsui Center 
March 14, 2012: Students, faculty and state dignitaries lauded the Robert T. Matsui Center’s work promoting public service, policy research and education during a special event highlighting recent renovations.
Public invited to Doe Library’s centennial party
March 13, 2012: Doe Library is inviting the public to join its centennial celebrations at an open house with exhibits, authors, music, cupcakes and more.
Law students play key role in proposed consumer-protection bill
March 12, 2012:
Berkeley Law students have been doing yeoman’s work on the Fair Debt Buyers Practices Act, now before California state senators in Sacramento. The bill would curb abuses by predatory debt buyers.
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin to be special IGS Salon guest
March 12, 2012: U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin will offer his insights about politics in Washington at the April 12 IGS Salon.
Students rally in Sacramento against public-education cuts
March 6, 2012: Berkeley students, faculty and staff joined thousands of protesters from across California in Sacramento Monday for a mass demonstration against the defunding of public education.
Experts assess results, potential impacts of the Republican primaries
February 29, 2012: UC Berkeley experts are looking into the Republican presidential primary contest, including reasons for the drawn-out Republican race; how the Tea Party may influence the outcomes; the chances of a brokered convention; gender politics; the power of words; and candidates’ emotions.
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.
Yosemite’s alpine chipmunks take genetic hit from climate change
February 19, 2012: 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.
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.
