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Summer SARS policy mutates
On May 2, the campus attracted national attention with its announcement that it would not accept students from SARS-affected countries in its summer school programs. Some commended the move, but others called it excessive, even discriminatory. Since then, partly in response to the criticism, Chancellor Berdahl has modified the policy to allow about a third of those students to attend.
Nearly 600 students were planning to come to Berkeley over the summer from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore--countries for which the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was issuing "travel advisories." Most were to take UC Extension classes in English as a Second Language (ESL); a smaller number had earned admission to Berkeley's regular summer session. Berdahl said he made the decision on the advice of public health officials, including director of the CDC Julie Gerberding, MPH '90, and Berkeley's own public health experts.
While the chance of anyone developing SARS at Berkeley is small, campus officials said that in order to comply with CDC guidelines they would need to set aside isolation rooms for any students experiencing a cough or fever within 10 days of arrival in the United States. In early May, rooms were not available in sufficient numbers to meet the guidelines, they said.
Although no other university has enacted a similar policy, Gerberding said she supported Berkeley's decision because the campus was expecting a very large number of students from SARS-affected countries, which put it in an "unusual predicament." But other public health experts argued that imposing restrictions on healthy people was unwarranted. Several Asian-American civil rights groups protested the decision, which professor of Asian American Studies Ling-chi Wang called "arbitrary and divisive." Wang said that it was a case of "racializing and politicizing a public health issue."
On May 10, the chancellor announced that the policy had been modified because more rooms had become available. After the CDC removed its travel advisory to Singapore, students from that country were to be admitted; and the approximately 80 students who planned to attend the regular summer session were also told they could enroll. A week later, the campus announced that 124 ESL students could also be accommodated.
Berdahl said that the campus had "worked diligently" to find extra housing units, in part because of the negative perceptions that had been created by the policy: "We are very concerned that our decision to limit enrollment in our summer programs has created the impression here and abroad that UC Berkeley was actually banning students from studying here or not welcoming Asian students at all. Nothing could be further from the truth."
 Top marks: Three teachers were chosen this year to receive one of the campus's most coveted honors, the Distinguished Teaching Award, which is granted by a committee of the Academic Senate and co-sponsored by the California Alumni Association. They were (left to right): Jeffrey Reimer, professor of chemical engineering; Martha Olney, M.A. '80, Ph.D '85, adjunct professor of economics; and Glynda Hull, professor in the Graduate School of Education. At the awards ceremony in late April, the College of Natural Resources and the College of Letters and Science shared the Educational Initiatives Award for their joint environmental sciences major, the first and only cross-college major at Berkeley.
Right turn on Telegraph
 Republican students from around the state came to Berkeley to participate in the California College Republicans conference at the end of April, and they relished the chance to show their patriotism. Midway through the weekend event, after a "support our troops" rally on Sproul Plaza, nearly 300 students waving American flags marched down Telegraph Avenue.
Carrying signs that said "Bomb France" and "The Original Axis of Evil: Al-Qaeda, Bin Laden, Barbara Lee," the boisterous, anthem-singing group elicited more than a little hostility--and even one Hitler salute--as vendors and various Berkeley types stared in disbelief. "I just wonder what's happened to people's empathy," said one onlooker. But marcher Chris Mays, a UC Davis senior wearing a "Kill Arafat" T-shirt, said: "It feels really wonderful. Telegraph Avenue is becoming a Republican safe zone."
Conservatives at Berkeley are certainly gaining ground. The Berkeley chapter of the College Republicans, which three years ago had about 10 members, now has an e-mail list of close to 500. Its publication, the California Patriot, is widely read, if not widely agreed with. At the conclusion of the march down Telegraph, Berkeley senior Michael Davidson, the new statewide chair of College Republicans, stood atop a newspaper vending box and declared: "UC Berkeley is now conquered U.S. territory!" He then urged: "Go out and convert some liberals!"
--Alexandra J. Wall
Budget woes
As Governor Gray Davis grapples with a $38 billion deficit, he is asking the University of California to take one of the severest budget cuts in history--$360 million to the UC system as a whole, a reduction of approximately 10 percent. But the University is bracing itself for the possibility of even deeper cuts in the final budget.
The regents expect to manage Davis's initial cut, which was announced in January, through a combination of increased student fees and decreased support for areas such as student services, administration, libraries, and research. After eight years during which student fees remained unchanged, the increases will be steep--on top of the 10 percent fee hike already enacted in spring 2003, the regents have proposed a further 25 percent increase for next year, raising fees by a total of $1,200 over 18 months to $3,916 for undergraduate state residents. (Forty percent of students will receive help with the increase through additional financial aid.)
The regents had feared that the governor would announce further cuts in his "May Revise" to the budget. But, much to their relief, he stuck to the cuts announced in January. Nevertheless, the University is by no means out of the woods, says Larry Hershman, UC vice president for budget. Some members of the legislature, which must approve the budget by a two-thirds majority by July 1, are suggesting additional cuts to UC of between $80 million and $400 million. "We are going to work hard to support the governor's budget, despite the deep cuts it imposes," says Hershman, adding that he would "vigorously oppose" any further cuts, which he said would do "great harm to the University."
Randy Parent '77, executive director of the California Alumni Association, agrees. He is calling on all alumni and friends of the University to lobby their state representatives to prevent any additional cuts: "The effects of further cuts would be disastrous--they would devastate the University. It takes generations to build up a top-caliber faculty, but all this could quickly be lost. Now is the time for CAA and its members to rally to the cause of the University," Parent said.
 | On April 29, professor of economics and Nobel laureate George Akerlof was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Also elected were William Dietrich from earth and planetary sciences and Michael Hout from sociology. |
In April, the history department hosted a two-day conference, "Race and American Life," in celebration of the scholarship and mentorship of history professor Leon Litwack '51. |  |
 | At the 2003 Academy Awards, Joe Letteri '81 and his team of artists won the Oscar for "Best Visual Effects" for their work on The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. |
Los Angeles Times staff writer Sonia Nazario, M.A. '88, won a 2003 Pulitzer Prize for her six-part series about a boy's odyssey from Central America to the U.S. to find his mother. |  |
 | Geography professor Michael Watts was named a 2003 Guggenheim fellow in April. He plans to use the award to complete a book on oil and contemporary Nigeria. |
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