The Minuteman

From the May 2008 Print Edition

UCPD chief “retires” with $2.1 million

UC Berkeley officials were on the defensive, attempting to justify UC Police Chief Victoria Harrison’s $2.1 million retirement package. Under the agreement, Harrison got the money and also continues to work for UC Berkeley with a $194,000 salary, according to an April 25 San Francisco Chronicle article. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.

TREE-SIT WATCH Oak protest has cost UC excess of $300,000

As the tree-sitters remain in their branched habitats in the oak grove near Memorial Stadium, the court has not yet come to a decision about the situation. The protesters have been in the trees for 503 days as of April 16. The judge’s final ruling should be ready sometime between now and the middle of June. Once the judge rules, everyone will have had their time in court and it will then be time to terminate the protest. It is always a possibility that the number of protesters may continue to decrease between now and then, but it is completely unpredictable. Over the past year, the number of tree-sitters has declined by about half, and there are now between four and seven tree-sitters. This protest has cost more than $300,000, but the source of this money is a contingency fund, leaving funds for research and education unaffected, according to Executive Director of Public Affairs Dan Mogulof.

— Roshanne Katouzian

Affirmative action on the comics page

In an April 16 article, San Francisco Chronicle Executive Datebook Editor David Wiegand admitted that a new comic strip, Candorville, was chosen because the main character is black: “A few readers said or implied that one of the reasons they like it is because its lead characters are African American. That was one of the reasons we were first attracted to it, to be sure. We want to find strips that reflect the diversity of the Bay Area.”

UCUES survey gives more choice in “gender” category

The University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey for 2008 has given students a variety of choices for classifying their gender. Most surveys that ask a person for gender give two choices, “male” and “female.” The UCUES has had an option for “other” in past years, but this year there are a few other choices. “Transgender” is one of the new choices and so is “genderqueer.” Apparently, the latter term refers to someone who is neither male nor female, who identifies with both genders or parts of both genders. Didn’t “hermaphrodite” used to be the word for that?

Visiting professor: “White flight” anti-Arab

Participating in a conference addressing “Islamophobia” at UC Berkeley, Marquette University professor Louise Cainkar blamed whites for “anti-Arab hate crimes.” According to an April 26 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Cainkar said crimes against Arabs were most common in “white flight” suburbs, citing a 2001 attack on a Chicago-area mosque. It’s nice to see that liberal professors have no problem using an isolated incident to make broad generalizations about whites when they still cannot figure out that 9/11 had something to do with radical Islam.

John Yoo interrupted at Bancroft Hotel event

John Yoo, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law and a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was greeted by protesters from the group World Can’t Wait when he spoke to a crowd at the Bancroft Hotel. Many have accused Yoo of writing memos for the Bush administration essentially justifying “torture.” Boalt Dean Christopher Edley has defended keeping Yoo on the Boalt staff despite the disapproval of a number of people. Of course, Yoo is one of the few professors on Boalt’s faculty who is politically conservative.

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