California Football

GET READY OREGON!

The Birg

We would like to express our appreciation to our campus community - faculty, staff, students, and alumni - for the orderly, peaceful and effective way in which the September 24th budget protest actions were held on and around campus.  While there was large participation in the day's actions, they occurred with minimal disruption to university operations and to our responsibilities to our students.  Berkeley is proud of being the home of the Free Speech Movement and yesterday's protests exemplified the best of our tradition of effective civil action.   Your actions have sent a clear and important message to our legislators and to the California public that the State's disinvestment in public higher education must stop. We hope that we can build on these actions together to continue to inform the public and the State legislature that cuts to the University of California undermine our State's future and that it is in the interests of all of the people of our great State of California to reinvest in public higher education.    Robert J. Birgeneau Chancellor

Bob Reich

"I don't blame Robert Birgeneau, I don't blame Mark Yudof, I don't blame the governor, I don't blame the Assembly, I blame ourselves for turning our back on the problem and not addressing the problem."

9/24 Walkout

Solidarty with the Walkout. I am excited for the noon rally on Sproul.

Remember, don't give up on the world class education you have now for the world class education you want. Work for what you want, don't take what you have for granted. Fight for what you deserve and never, never miss an opportunity to learn.

You can't expect to receive a paycheck for work that you never did.

Gavin Newsom in the Huffington Post:

With the upcoming University of California walkout, we asked our Facebook community recently how the impending UC and CSU cuts were affecting them. The response was overwhelming:

Stephanie from SF State needed only two classes to graduate with her bachelor's degree. But one of the courses was eliminated -- graduation will have to wait until next year.

A mother from the East Bay worried that her daughter couldn't enroll in a single class she needs and is about to lose her student status, her financial aid, and health insurance.

Sarah from UC Davis saw her tuition increase almost ten percent, while her mother, a state employee, just took a 15 percent pay cut.

UC Berkeley will be eliminating approximately one out of every ten courses this coming year. UC San Francisco will potentially have to reduce their faculty by fourteen percent because of the recent cuts. UCLA has reduced support to research centers by fifty percent. UC Irvine has completely stopped admitting students into their education program.

All across the state, we are choking off opportunity for hundreds of thousands of young Californians to build a better life for themselves and a better future for California.

And it's our fault. We've allowed our system of governance to de-fund and de-prioritize higher education, putting our state's economic future in jeopardy.

Let me be clear: I favor fully funding the UC system. Cannibalizing our state's future through cuts to education is the exact opposite of the kind of reform and long-term thinking we need from our leaders in Sacramento.

But the current resource-constrained situation forces us to make difficult choices about our shared priorities. We must protect our environment, provide universal health care and invest in infrastructure development. And therein lies our statewide dilemma.

We have a system in California that discourages thoughtful budget and financial planning, requiring a two-thirds majority every year to pass a budget that paralyzes our state. We have a complex web of ballot initiatives that further complicates the process.

Walkouts like the one currently planned will become more frequent unless we undertake systemic reforms and truly take California in a new direction.

We need to convene a constitutional convention and get serious about changes to the system. Until we do, we're jeopardizing our ability to be competitive in the global economy. Preparing our children for success in the 21st century necessitates investment in higher education not cuts to it.

In San Francisco, we have a robust rainy day fund. We drew down on our reserves to make sure not a single teacher in San Francisco was laid off when the recession hit. We created a partnership between SFSU, the school district, and the city to guarantee a college education to every public school 6th grader who wants one. And if their families can't afford tuition, we help with that too.

We operate with a limited budget in San Francisco, just like the state. But we managed to keep teachers in the classroom and promise every student a chance to go to college. We didn't raise taxes -- we reformed the budget process and used resources in a smarter way.

It's time to shake up the system that's put our state in this mess. We need come together to fundamentally rethink how we govern California.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gavin-newsom/lets-get-our-priorities-s_b_297374.html

The End is Not Near, It is Here

Finals are upon us here at Cal. That means late night crossroads and unlimited amounts of free coffee. I hated that place so much Freshman year but every semester, come finals, I love it. The sticky tables are not best suited for intense studying but they are pretty well suited for just about everything else from Dystopian philosophical discussions to book clubs to slime volleyball (of course some actual studying is usually involved).

I cannot wait for:

my classes to be done with,

summer (especially),

a new apartment (though i will miss my old one dearly),

JusticeCorps ,

and a whole new year.

(and seeing Star Trek for the 3rd time)

District 9 Trailer

I forgot to include this in my last post, but this movie looks insane!

Happy Day After

So Cinco De Mayo involved Jon, Marty, Me, and four pounds of Carne. I began to prepare mentally at around 10 o'clock in the morning so that I could deal with how good the food was going to be. But when the meal and Tecate came, it was all better then we could have excpected anyways.

This weekend I went to Relay for Like up here in Berk. The weather sucked but people still came out, it was pretty cool. Except for the Thai food dinner that I could not partake in but I got over it quick. Here is my Lumanaria that I hand crafted:





Luckily it survived after the bag that it was sitting next to burst into flames.

Tomorrow, Stark Trek...