Devra Breslow pointed me to this NY Times article on howUC-Berkeley sold a million dollar artwork for $150: (excerpt)
Everybody misplaces something sometime. But it is not easyfor the University of California, Berkeley, to explain how it lost a22-foot-long carved panel by a celebrated African-American sculptor, or how,three years ago, it mistakenly sold this work, valued at more than a milliondollars, for $150 plus tax. Theuniversity’s embarrassing loss eventually enabled the Huntington Library, ArtCollections and Botanical Gardens, a large museum and research center in SanMarino, Calif., to acquire its first major work by an African-American artist. The circuitous tale of Sargent Johnson’s hugeredwood relief involves error, chance and a partnership of unlikely art-worldfigures, including an art and furniture dealer who stumbled upon the panels atthe university’s surplus store; an antiques dealer who was on a first-namebasis with Michael Jackson and his chimp Bubbles; and a lawyer whose hobby isbuying lighthouses and who convinced the government that even though the artwas commissioned by the Works Progress Administration, it could still be soldpublicly…
Apparently, various “Occupy” demonstrations are still goingon at UC-Berkeley:
Protesters from OccupyOakland converged on UC Berkeley Saturday evening, the day after 18 Occupy Calprotesters were detained when their encampment was cleared from in front of DoeLibrary. About 40 protesters fromOakland marched down Telegraph Avenue, eventually reaching the InternationalHouse on Piedmont Avenue at around 11 p.m. An “Occupy the Truth” conference isbeing held this weekend at International House, and protesters set up fivetents to show solidarity with the conference. House administration agreed tolet the encampment remain on the lawn overnight as long as the steps leading upto the entrance were kept clear for traffic, according to Shirley Spiller,chief financial officer for the house…
Protesters occupying the UC Berkeley's anthropology libraryon campus claimed victory Saturday night when university administrators signedan agreement meeting the protesters' demands for a fully restored libraryschedule. …Under the agreement, thelibrary will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 1 to 6 p.m. onweekends, the same hours that were kept in the Fall 2011 semester. As part ofthe agreement, administrators also will hire a full-time librarian…
Despite skyrocketingtuition costs, three University of California schools were named among thenation’s best public school bargains in rankings published Tuesday byKiplinger’s Personal Finance.
UCBerkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diegofinished seventh, ninth and 10th, respectively, in the magazine’s annualanalysis, which honors 100 schools for their combination of quality andaffordability. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was ranked firstfor the 11th consecutive year…
UC-Berkeley and other‘public Ivies’ in fiscal peril
Daniel de Vise, Dec.26, 2011, Washington Post
Across the nation, ahistoric collapse in state funding for higher education threatens to diminishthe stature of premier public universities and erode their mission as enginesof upward social mobility. At theUniversity of Virginia, state support has dwindled in two decades from 26percent of the operating budget to 7 percent. At the University of Michigan, ithas declined from 48 percent to 17 percent. Not even the nation’s finest public university is immune. The Universityof California at Berkeley — birthplace of the free-speech movement, home to nineliving Nobel laureates — subsists now in perpetual austerity. Star faculty takemandatory furloughs. Classes grow perceptibly larger each year. Roofs leak;e-mail crashes. One employee mows the entire campus. Wastebaskets are emptiedonce a week. Some professors lack telephones…
Tuition costs surging
In academia, there isparticular concern for the sector leaders known as “public Ivies.” These top public universities (a group thatincludes Berkeley, UCLA and the universities of Michigan, North Carolina andVirginia) educate many more students than their Ivy League counterparts.Berkeley alone serves roughly the same number of low-income students — measuredin federal Pell grant data — as the Ivies do together…
Below is the press release and a related video. Note that the aid is said to be financed by non-state sources including recycling revenue from out-of-state students.
UC Berkeley launches groundbreaking middle-class financial aid plan
By Public Affairs, UC Berkeley | December 14, 2011
University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced today (Wednesday, Dec. 14) a new financial aid program to help middle-class families pay for the growing cost of an undergraduate degree.
For families whose gross income ranges from $80,000 to $140,000 annually, the new plan caps the contribution parents make toward the total annual cost of a UC Berkeley student’s education at 15 percent of their earnings. Total cost includes tuition, fees and expenses, such as room, board and books.
The initiative, named Berkeley MCAP (Middle Class Access Plan), is the first program in the nation at a public university to extend comprehensive financial aid to this category of middle-class families. The university is launching this initiative in recognition of California’s high cost of living, the challenges these families face and the significant tuition increases of recent years.
“Berkeley has an outstanding record of providing access through financial aid for students. As a result, our undergraduates leave college with among the lowest levels of student debt in the country,” said Birgeneau. “While our extraordinary commitment to financial aid has, in recent years, led to both an increasing number of lower income students on the Berkeley campus and a reduction in their net cost of attendance, we see early signs that middle-income families who cannot access existing assistance programs are straining to meet college costs. As a public institution we feel strongly that we need to sustain and expand access across the socio-economic spectrum. This plan is part of our commitment to ensuring that financial challenges do not prevent qualified students from attending one of the preeminent public universities in the nation.”
Financial aid awarded through the new program will be for the 2012-13 school year, which begins in August, and is for domestic undergraduate students, including incoming freshmen. Berkeley MCAP will augment the campus’s robust financial aid program that already provides grant aid to more than half of the campus’s 25,885 undergraduates and has lowered by 15 percent since 2005 the net cost of attendance for students from the most economically disadvantaged families. UC Berkeley distributes more than $600 million each year in grants, loans, work-study, fellowships and scholarships. Currently, approximately 40 percent of all undergraduates effectively pay no tuition.
Berkeley MCAP will assist all families within the $80-140,000 income range that have assets of less than $200,000, excluding the value of a home and retirement savings. Campus officials estimate that about 6,000 undergraduate students come from families in this income range. Residents of other states also will be eligible for assistance, although this program will not cover the cost of non-resident tuition. International students will not be eligible for Berkeley MCAP assistance. The parameters of the program will be reviewed on an annual basis.
“As state support for Berkeley has declined by more than half in just the past few years, tuition has increased dramatically, making up for only a portion of this disinvestment,” said Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Harry LeGrande. “Today, the total cost of attendance is at a level that can be easily accommodated only by affluent families. Even as we continue to advocate for increased state support, we feel the need to address the very real issues of our middle-class families.”
Campus budget officials estimate that Berkeley MCAP will require between $10 million and $12 million in funding over the course of the 2012-13 academic year. They said they will not use state funds to fund the program, but instead will redirect expanded financial aid resources, philanthropy and revenue from the increased number of UC Berkeley students paying non-resident tuition.
The current cost of attendance at UC Berkeley for California residents living on campus is estimated to average $32,634 per year for students living on campus, including $12,834 in tuition and fees. Non-residents pay an additional $22,878 per year. To reduce the cost of attendance, students from economically disadvantaged families receive substantial grant aid from sources that include Pell Grants, Cal Grants and direct aid from the University of California.
The Berkeley MCAP announcement is being made now to ensure that families of students applying for 2012-13 admission know about Berkeley MCAP assistance before the financial aid application process begins in early January. UC Berkeley’s acting director of financial aid, Rachelle Feldman, encouraged eligible families of both currently enrolled and prospective students to file the “Free Application for Federal Student Aid” (FAFSA) form if they wish to be eligible for Berkeley MCAP.
“For these families, it’s a three-way partnership: Parents, students, and financial aid all make a contribution toward the cost of attendance. The Berkeley MCAP program is designed to help families with costs above and beyond the amount we expect students themselves to contribute,” Feldman said. “All students receiving financial aid assume some responsibility for paying for their own education, usually through work-study or student loans. At the same time, we take great pride in the fact that our students have, on average, among the lowest student debt levels in the nation upon graduation: The 40 percent of our undergraduates who graduate with any loans have an average debt of $16,056, as opposed to the national average of $25,000 for two-thirds of graduating students.”
According to recent reports from the Public Policy Institute of California, approximately half of all families in the state are in the middle-income bracket, and the gap between the highest and lowest income families is the widest in 30 years. Chancellor Birgeneau noted that the institute found that, “The most important factor driving the gap between high- and low-income workers is education,” and said he supports the report’s request that the state find “innovative ways to promote opportunity through education, especially so that middle- and lower-income families are not left behind.”
“The Berkeley MCAP program is necessary and completely consistent with everything we stand for as an institution,” Birgeneau said. “Public universities are the gateway to the American Dream, and the engine of future economic growth. We will continue to do everything in our power to serve the greater good through steps to preserve the excellence and affordability of this university.”
Jerry Brown says he's 'seriously concerned' about protest response (excerpt)
Capital Alert blog of Sacramento Bee 11-28-11
..."I am seriously concerned that the rules governing the use of force, in particular the use of pepper spray, are not well understood in the context of civil disobedience and various forms of public protest," Brown wrote to Paul Cappitelli, director of the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. "The recent 'occupation' protests in cities throughout California and on campuses of the University of California underscore the urgency of articulating guidelines that are crystal clear and comport with constitutional requirements."
Brown, who returned to California over the weekend after a vacation out of state, had been silent about the pepper spraying of protesters by police at UC Davis and a clash between protesters and police at UC Berkeley…
The union representing UC-Berkeley police released a statement to the news media this morning, apparently timed for the rescheduled Regents meeting.It appeared in Political Blotter (link below).
It is our hope that this letter will help open the door to a better understanding between UC Berkeley police and the University community.The UC Berkeley Police Officers’ Association, representing approximately 64 campus police officers, understands your frustration over massive tuition hikes and budget cuts, and we fully support your right to peacefully protest to bring about change.It was not our decision to engage campus protesters on November 9th. We are now faced with “managing” the results of years of poor budget planning. Please know we are not your enemy.
A video clip gone viral does not depict the full story or the facts leading up to an actual incident. Multiple dispersal requests were given in the days and hours before the tent removal operation. Not caught on most videos were scenes of protesters hitting, pushing, grabbing officers’ batons, fighting back with backpacks and skateboards.
The UC Berkeley Police Officers’ Association supports a full investigation of the events that took place on November 9th, as well as a full review of University policing policies. That being said, we do not abrogate responsibility for the events on November 9th.UC Berkeley police officers want to better serve students and faculty members and we welcome ideas for how we can have a better discourse to avoid future confrontations. We are open to all suggestions on ways we can improve our ability to better protect and serve the UC Berkeley community.As your campus police, we also have safety concerns that we ask you to consider.
Society has changed significantly since 1964 when peaceful UC Berkeley student protesters organized a 10-hour sit-in in Sproul Hall and 10,000 students held a police car at bay – spawning change and the birth of our nation’s Free Speech Movement.However proud we can all be of UC Berkeley’s contribution to free speech in America, no one can deny this: Our society in 2011 has become an extremely more violent place to live and to protect. No one understands the effects of this violence more than those of us in law enforcement.
Disgruntled citizens in this day and age express their frustrations in far more violent ways – with knives, with guns and sometimes by killing innocent bystanders. Peaceful protests can, in an instant, turn into violent rioting, ending in destruction of property or worse – the loss of lives. Police officers and innocent citizens everywhere are being injured, and in some instances, killed.In the back of every police officer’s mind is this: How can I control this incident so it does not escalate into a seriously violent, potentially life-threatening event for all involved?
While students were calling the protest “non-violent,” the events on November 9th were anything but nonviolent. In previous student Occupy protests, protesters hit police officers with chairs, bricks, spitting, and using homemade plywood shields as weapons – with documented injuries to officers.At a moment’s notice, the November 9th protest at UC Berkeley could have turned even more violent than it did, much like the Occupy protests in neighboring Oakland.
Please understand that by no means are we interested in making excuses. We are only hoping that you will understand and consider the frustrations we experience daily as public safety officers sworn to uphold the law. It is our job to keep protests from escalating into violent events where lives could be endangered.
We sincerely ask for your help in doing this.Like you, we have been victims to budget cuts that affect our children and our families in real ways. We, too, hold on to the dream of being able to afford to send our children and grandchildren to a four-year university. Like you, we understand and fully support the need for change and a redirection of priorities.
To students and faculty: As 10,000 students surrounded a police car on campus in 1964, protesters passed the hat to help pay for repairs to the police car as a show of respect. Please peacefully respect the rules we are required to enforce – for all our safety and protection. Please respect the requests of our officers as we try to do our jobs.
To the University Administration and Regents: Please don’t ask us to enforce your policies then refuse to stand by us when we do. Your students, your faculty and your police – we need you to provide real leadership.We openly and honestly ask the UC Berkeley community for the opportunity to move forward together, peacefully and without further incident – in better understanding of one another. Thank you for listening.
Note: See prior blog entries on the "Occupy" incidents at Davis and Berkeley. Links at bottom of this posting.
President Yudof responds to campus protest issues
Contact: UC Office of the President Phone: (510) 987-9157
University of California President Mark G. Yudof today (Nov. 20) announced the actions he is taking in response to recent campus protest issues:
I am appalled by images of University of California students being doused with pepper spray and jabbed with police batons on our campuses.
I intend to do everything in my power as president of this university to protect the rights of our students, faculty and staff to engage in non-violent protest.
Chancellors at the UC Davis and UC Berkeley campuses already have initiated reviews of incidents that occurred on their campuses. I applaud this rapid response and eagerly await the results.
The University of California, however, is a single university with 10 campuses, and the incidents in recent days cry out for a systemwide response.
Therefore I will be taking immediate steps to set that response in motion.
I intend to convene all 10 chancellors, either in person or by telephone, to engage in a full and unfettered discussion about how to ensure proportional law enforcement response to non-violent protest.
To that end, I will be asking the chancellors to forward to me at once all relevant protocols and policies already in place on their individual campuses, as well as those that apply to the engagement of non-campus police agencies through mutual aid agreements.
Further, I already have taken steps to assemble experts and stakeholders to conduct a thorough, far-reaching and urgent assessment of campus police procedures involving use of force, including post-incident review processes.
My intention is not to micromanage our campus police forces. The sworn officers who serve on our campuses are professionals dedicated to the protection of the UC community.
Nor do I wish to micromanage the chancellors. They are the leaders of our campuses and they have my full trust and confidence.
Nonetheless, the recent incidents make clear the time has come to take strong action to recommit to the ideal of peaceful protest.
As I have said before, free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and non-violent protest has long been central to our history. It is a value we must protect with vigilance. I implore students who wish to demonstrate to do so in a peaceful and lawful fashion. I expect campus authorities to honor that right.
Even as student protests spread across the state this fall - with national attention focused today on the pepper spraying of nonviolent protesters at UC Davis - Gov. Jerry Brown has kept silent...
Note: Those who know California political history will know that Jerry Brown - determined not to be like his father who got blamed for demonstrations at Berkeley - got his start as a public figure being tough on student demonstrations as a member of a community college board.
I am proud of UC students who are speaking out with passion and conviction in support of public higher education across the state. I was moved last night by the sight of thousands of students who peacefully demonstrated in UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza, and by those who traveled to Sacramento to protest state disinvestment in our colleges and universities.
Free speech is in the DNA of the University of California, and public protest is an important part of our history. Free speech is often contentious, as is democracy. I want all of our students to know that I fully and unequivocally support their right to protest peacefully.
At UC Berkeley, a process is in place to review the violence of last week. Like Chancellor Birgeneau, I was distressed by what I saw, both as a parent and as president of the University of California. Whether there or elsewhere, I have absolute confidence that our chancellors will do what is right and necessary to ensure that the campuses where our students live and learn provide an environment for robust but peaceful discourse. The safety of our students must be protected, always.
In difficult times like these, it sometimes can be too easy to lose sight of the larger picture. UC students, faculty, staff and our regents all share a passion for the University and its role in shaping a better society. We also suffer together the strains caused by what has been a long pattern of state disinvestment in the University of California. And, as a result, we should stand together in common cause to do everything in our power to convince the state’s political leadership that higher education represents not a cost, but the most enlightened investment any state can make.
I also want to offer the heartfelt sympathy of the entire UC community to the family of Christopher Travis, the student who died of wounds suffered yesterday at the Haas Business School in a shooting incident unrelated to the Sproul Plaza activities. It is an absolutely tragic situation for all involved, for Mr. Travis, the students who were placed in jeopardy and the staff and police who quickly responded and took action.
Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 24, 2011
A Facebook post announcing plans by a UC Berkeley Republican group to sell baked goods priced according to race, gender and ethnicity - "White/Caucasian" pastries for $2 and "Black/African American" pastries for 75 cents, for example - has drawn outrage on campus… The campus Republicans, who expect to go forward with their "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" on Tuesday, say the event is meant to mock an effort by the student government to drum up support for SB185, a bill to let the University of California and the California State University consider ethnicity in student admissions. It's awaiting approval or veto by Gov. Jerry Brown. "Our bake sale will be at the same time and location of a phone bank which will be making calls to urge Gov. Brown to sign the bill," posted six students who created the Facebook page. The purpose "is to offer another view to this policy of considering race in university admissions. The pricing structure of the baked goods is meant to be satirical."…
The article above does not go into the background of the bill – SB185 – which seems to have sparked this episode. Voters passed Prop 209 in 1996 which bans affirmative action in public university admissions. On the face of it, SB185 seems in potential conflict with Prop 209. News accounts indicate that Ward Connerly, the former UC regent who sponsored Prop 209, threatened to sue if SB185 was enacted and implemented. (Any legal types who read this blog are welcome to comment on that issue.)
I have found an Academic Senate document dated March 15, 2011 which recommends that UC remain neutral about SB185:
The document makes brief mention of Prop 209 but points to other steps UC has adopted since Prop 209 was approved by voters. It suggests that UC might work with the author of SB185 to improve the bill in some way. Whether there were such interactions and whether the bill was modified since that time as a result, I do not know.
Below is the official summary of the bill. Note that the legislative history provided indicates amendments were made along the way, although these may not have been as a result of any UC consultations. The full text of the bill is at
PASSED THE SENATE SEPTEMBER 1, 2011; PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 29, 2011; AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 7, 2011; AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 3, 2011; AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 4, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hernandez (Coauthor: Assembly Member Lara) FEBRUARY 7, 2011
An act to amend Section 66205 of the Education Code, relating to public postsecondary education.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 185, Hernandez. Public postsecondary education. Existing law, the Donahoe Higher Education Act, sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of California's public and independent segments of higher education, and their respective institutions of higher education. Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, and the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, as 2 of the public segments of postsecondary education.
Provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the regents act, by resolution, to make these provisions applicable. A provision of the act expresses legislative intent with respect to the determination of standards and criteria for admission to the University of California and the California State University.
This bill would authorize the University of California and the California State University to consider race, gender, ethnicity, and national origin, along with other relevant factors, in undergraduate and graduate admissions, to the maximum extent permitted by the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, Section 31 of Article I of the California Constitution, and relevant case law.
The bill would require the trustees, and request the regents, to report in writing to the Legislature and the Governor by November 1, 2013, on the implementation of the bill. The bill would require these reports to include information relative to the number of students admitted, disaggregated by race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, geographic origin, and household income, and compared to the prior 2 years of admissions. == It is not known whether Gov. Brown will sign the bill. He has been critical of the legislature passing too many bills in recent days. == For those interested in the earlier history: Prop 209 was preceded by passage by the Regents of a ban on affirmative action. Once the Regents had passed the new rule, there was a campaign for the statewide Prop 209 which encompassed more than just UC and more than just student admissions. A news report on the original regents’ action can be found below:
When Tolman Hall at UC-Berkeley was dedicated in 1963 (see picture at right), things were quite peaceful. Not so yesterday when a student anti-tuition demonstration got out of hand:
From the Daily Californian (UC-Berkeley student newspaper) today:
Tensions between police officers and demonstrators fluctuated throughout the course of a campus protest Thursday, culminating in a violent scuffle when one man was carried from Tolman Hall by his arms and legs.At about 9 p.m., after over seven hours of protest inside the building, protesters were chanting in the lobby of Tolman and police officers began to move towards the doors to prevent a small crowd of demonstrators outside from entering the building.Protesters then began running toward the west doors and an altercation with officers ensued. One man was carried away and arrested after being forced to the ground by police officers.During the altercation, protesters became riled and threw objects at police, resulting in a cracked window…
Campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore said the campus agreed withtui the motivations behind the demonstration.“We share the students’ frustrations over the state’s disinvestment in higher education, and we support their right to protest,” she said…
Note: Warren Olney's "Which Way LA?" program on KCRW had a feature on UC tuition with UCLA student interviews. Go to minute 19 for that segment of the program:
The Washington Monthly has a ranking of national universities by "their contribution to the public good." It looks at such things as students on Pell Grants. UC-San Diego comes in as #1, UCLA as #2, UC-Berkeley #3, UC-Riverside #5, UC-Davis #8, UC-Santa Barbara #13, UC-Irvine #60. The full listing is at http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2011/national_university_rank.php
UC Berkeley grad spots $2 trillion S&P debt downgrade error
Blog from San Francisco Chronicle 8/11/11
It took the sharp eye and calculating mind of John Bellows, a UC Berkeley 2009 Economics Ph.D grad, to catch the $2 trillion error in Standard & Poor's credit rating that has roiled the global markets since it was issued Aug. 5.Bellows noted that S&P based its judgment on a projection that the U.S. debt as a share of the nation's gross domestic product would rise rapidly over the next 10 years. The error, which S&P acknowledged in private conversations with the Treasury Department, estimated that the U.S. debt would be 8 percentage points higher by 2021 than if correctly estimated. Instead of rescinding the downgrade, S&P changed its rationale.Bellows wrote in the Treasury Department blog: "Independent of this error, there is no justifiable rationale for downgrading the debt of the United States government."
Just an editorial note from yours truly. The last sentence is actually the key. Treasury securities are promises to pay dollars. The U.S. can create dollars. Therefore, any default is political and has nothing to do with the usual measures such as debt-to-income that are used for borrowers (such as the State of California) that can't create the currency in which they borrow. There could be a political decision but you and I know as much about that as S&P. S&P provides no - NO! - insight on that issue beyond common knowledge. S&P is looking for a) publicity (which it got) and b) redemption from the mortgage debacle (which it helped to create).
There is no redemption from "b". But there is the S&P song:
