There was a good piece in the Daily Cal the other day that is worth repeating. Brittany De Avilan started a club on campus called Adopt a Soldier. Members write letters and send packages to Marines serving in Iraq.

Some people have not understood the purpose of the group. From the letter:

I remember telling people about it and then asking, “So, would you like to join?” They replied with a simple “No, I don’t support the war.” “But, but … it’s not supporting the war…” I started to say, only trailing off silently because the supposed fervent anti-war person who probably never attended an anti-war march had already walked off. I went to numerous meetings and classes on campus to make an announcement about Adopt a Soldier. I got the same reaction. Some even thought “Hey, we can write to ask the soldiers to stop fighting, you know, tell them how wrong the war is.”

Whatever you stance on the war is, the soldiers serving in Iraq and elsewhere have to see and deal with a lot of terrible things. Any contact or friendly words they receive from people at home means volumes to them.

For more information on the group email caladoptasoldier@yahoo.com or attend their meetings on Thursdays 7:00-7:30 p.m. in 108 Wheeler.

This morning an article in the Bay Area Reporter disclosed city council member Kriss Worthington’s future plans for elected office.

Berkeley City Council member Kriss Worthington will launch a bid for an East Bay Assembly seat next week. The openly gay Worthington told the Bay Area Reporter that he would officially announce his campaign for the 14th District Assembly seat Monday, September 24.

The average Berkeley political figure is very liberal and Worthington is no exception. However, he has a record of helping students, which makes him one of the better local elected officials in my view. The current holder of the 14th Assembly seat Loni Hancock is being termed out.

One of my friends is considering a run for the Assembly seat on the Republican side. While I hope he wins, his chances are very, very, very bad.

In a decision that affects none of us, the Regents decided to cancel Summers, former Harvard President from speaking at a dinner party they were planning according to this blog (article here). In case he’s faded from memory already, Summers made some comments at a Harvard event about how men and women are different in their intellectual abilities, and what that might mean for academia. Everyone got mad and he caved to the feminists and retracted his statements. When the Regents found out he was coming, a petition went around and they decided Summers had to go becase he “has come to symbolize gender and racial prejudice in academia.”

The post’s author, John Leo says

This is the most devastating charge that can be leveled in a university setting, since the modern campus is deeply obsessed by race and gender, and not much else, apart from canceling speakers who think improper thoughts about race and gender.

Go diversity! Let’s embrace it by all thinking the same things!

Today the Wall Street Journal came out with rankings for the best MBA programs in the country. Berkeley’s own Haas School of Business is #2.

From the Haas Newsroom:

The Haas School jumped to #2, up from #5 last year, in the 2007 Wall Street Journal ranking of MBA programs published on September 17. This marks the strongest showing of the school’s full-time Berkeley MBA program in any major, popular ranking.

A few words from Dean Campbell via Haas Newsroom:

“We are absolutely delighted at this vote of confidence from our recruiters,” said Dean Tom Campbell. “Our students are among the best in the world, and our career services staff has developed excellent programs to provide the best possible service to students and to recruiters. We are very pleased to see that our efforts resonate with employers.”

While the rating is for the MBA program, its success bodes well for the undergraduate business program. I know many (maybe even too many) people at Haas and today both the students and professors have a lot to be proud of.

This morning The Oakland Tribune reported a few students were arrested, cited, and released for trespassing at the oak grove by the stadium. From the Tribune:

The 10-month-old oak grove protest at Memorial Stadium briefly intensified Friday as more than 30 students scaled a fence surrounding the grove, and 21 of them were ultimately arrested for trespassing.

This is the first time I have heard about mass citations of students around the oak situation. Earlier it looked like the effort was primarily non-student community members in isolated incidents.

The scene is briefly described:

As a flood of campus police officers responded to the scene, the students danced and held hands.

There is also a quote in support of the oaks:

“For us, it is a sacred place,” said Matthew Taylor, a 33-year-old undergraduate. “We’re willing to be arrested for whatwe [sic] believe in.”

I did a search on Facebook and found a profile for a Matthew Taylor who is 33 and wants to save the oaks. However, the person in the profile is listed as an alum.

I hope next time the police will arrest everyone who is trespassing, especially the people living in the trees.

Yesterday UC Berkeley released a survey of its economic impact on Berkeley and the surrounding area.

From an ABC 7 KGO TV report:

The university calculates it infuses close to three-quarters of a billion dollars a year into the local economy.

$31 million is spent in Berkeley on goods and services.
$314 million in salaries are paid to Berkeley residents.
$117 million is allocated to capital projects, and $282 million in student spending.

They have a video if you want to see what Berkeley looks like on TV. There is also an interview with a Berkeley resident who said there were more important things than money, like values. Unfortunately, the report does not uncover what Berkeley values the University is corrupting.

From the Berkeley Newscenter:

As the largest employer in the city of Berkeley, as well as in the East Bay counties of Alameda and Contra Costa, the campus employs more people than the next nine largest employers in the city combined, providing jobs to 24,700 staff, including 9,700 students who work on campus.

I wish I could work out practical teleportation in one of my Physics classes. I would teleport the entire University to a different city. Then as the City of Berkeley fades into obscurity and loses the hundreds of millions of dollars dumped into its economy it can realize the error of its ways. Until that happens, I have to live here to attend the best public university in the country.

Today a judge in Alameda County Superior Court ruled the hippies could continue their nine month occupation of the oak trees near Memorial Stadium. The University wanted them removed because of health and safety issues. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The university asked for the court order Monday when police found several propane tanks in the tree houses. There have also been an increasing number of excrement and urine spills from the tree-sitters’ buckets, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said.

If they want to be more in tune with nature, instead of using propane tanks the hippies could use more earthy ways of staying warm and cooking. They should make wood fires.

“We have a long tradition of honoring and protecting free speech on this campus, but we also have to protect the safety of the students, community and the people in the trees,” said Mogulof. “This is becoming a small village, and we’re seeing all the same sanitation and safety issues you see in any small village.”

While it is funny the oaks and associated tree people are now a “small village,” it is also sad. When did it become permissible to trespass and occupy someone else’s property for nine months?

A Solution

If we are going to revert to an older village based system, maybe more people should see and experience this way of life. The hippies want the fence removed so maybe they should get their wish. With the barrier separating the people suddenly gone, things will proceed very quickly. When tens of thousands of football fans are around the stadium on Saturday they can directly interact with the tree people. They can learn about each other’s way of life and values. It would be a great opportunity to experience the differences between the cultures of tree-sitting and football. The hippies will sing combiya and the football fans will chant the classic “Give um the Axe.” However the two sides resolve their differences, it will be without the lawyers and courthouses the modern world has forced upon their natural ways. Isn’t that what everyone wants? A solution where both sides can express their feelings face to face in a natural setting.

Until this dream becomes a reality, the occupation of the oaks by hippie tree-sitters will continue.

This morning 2,977 American flags were put on Memorial Glade as a memorial to the people who were killed by the terrorist attacks six years ago.

Members of the Berkeley College Republicans starting placing the flags at 7 in the morning.

The on campus event organized by the Berkeley College Republicans was co-sponsored by the Cal Berkeley Democrats and the Berkeley National Organization for Women.

The flags will be out there until approximately 7 this evening. Even if you don’t make it out to any see the memorial, say a prayer for the victims and their families.

Word of mouth came to us just this minute (to the tune of police sirens) that there has been a shooting on campus. We hear sirens all the time, so this could just be a rumor (from phone call to phone call), and we’ll see what happens.

Update: Many police cars and fire engines on northside, some moving on to campus. Police were also seen in the North Gate/Euclid/Haste area.

James says apparently there’s no emergency. We’ll see what the situation turns out to be.

From the Berkeley Newscenter:

The University of California, Berkeley, today (Monday, Sept. 10) received the largest private gift in its history, $113 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This gift represents a turning point in the financing of public higher education, providing endowment support that will help to close the funding gap between the nation’s preeminent public university and its elite private peers, according to UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau.

I was just in the Physics lab fighting with equipment from the 70s and 80s. However, the money is going to be used to endow 100 academic chairs. The idea is professors who hold the chairs will get money for their research.

Even though William Hewlett attended Stanford and started a highly successful company, the foundation bearing his name still gave UC Berkeley a large amount of dough.

The city of San Francisco is a self declared sanctuary city for illegal immigrants. Now the city is considering giving identification cards to people who are there illegally. The story about the proposal of Supervisor Tom Ammiano is in the San Francisco Chronicle .

Ammiano said the impetus for the city cards came from the immigrant community, which asked for his help. Illegal immigrants who are victims or witnesses of crime often do not report the incident because they have no identification and fear deportation. Identification also is needed for many services, such as city health care.

With San Francisco’s current immigration stance, I don’t see how people having an ID card will make them more likely to go to the authorities for help. People who are really that afraid will not suddenly line up to get ID cards.

Mayor Gavin Newsom has been resolute in defending San Francisco’s sanctuary status, and on Thursday his spokesman said Newsom supports Ammiano’s idea for a card, which could be used for libraries, golf courses, public transportation and other services.

Anyone who has the time to play golf does not need city help. Unless the city wants to give these people so many services on the public dime they have nothing better to do than hit the links.

The only way an immigration policy is going to work in the U.S. is uniform enforcement of the law. When San Francisco announces itself as a sanctuary city it is undermining the federal policy. Giving out special cards to people does not excuse their lawbreaking and might encourage more people to enter the country illegally.

Today in the mail my apartment received a letter from the City of Berkeley. It was a request to fill out a travel diary. The city wants ever person living at the address 14 and older to fill out information about their local trips taken yesterday.

When talking about going to work or the grocery store, the diary asks what a person’s primary mode of transportation was, which is to be listed separately from other means of conveyance used on that trip.

I think a tree or two was needlessly slain for the paper. This fine travel diary, instructions, and accompanying letter took six pages of paper. It also included a postage paid return letter. As an added incentive, the first 300 households returning the survey by Monday will receive a $5 gift certificate for Walgreen’s.

While I don’t know if I like my tax dollars being spent on this, I have come across a few problems with transportation while moving around Berkeley. The cement cones in the middle of streets, a lack of parking, and streets that go from one lane to two lanes and then back to one lane without warning, rhyme, or discernable reason. However, the survey does not want to hear my ideas. The only open feedback question that allows the surveyed to write is “…please tell us what would help you to drive less and take transit, bike, or walk more.”

Even if I was driving a snazzy car like this, with the survey I received I don’t see where my opinion fits in.