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 Gee Wiz! Bancroft Library deputy director Peter Hanff is a respected scholar in the dignified field of rare books and special collections. So his colleagues often chuckle with surprise when he divulges his side job: He’s president of the International Wizard of Oz Club. While the 2,000-member club, founded in 1957, has its lighter duties – dispelling rumors about drunken munchkins on the set of the famous 1939 MGM movie, or answering inquiries from folks looking for Oz-themed party supplies – it also deals with issues of a more serious nature. “One of the hot topics for discussion among members is what material is considered official Oz canon,” Hanff says. “Some consider the original 14 books written by L. Frank Baum as the only authentic texts, while others include the subsequent 26 books written by six other authors.” The club takes no official stand on these issues, but it gladly provides a forum for vigorous discourse on the topic. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, has had a profound influence on American culture. Most know the story through the movie starring Judy Garland and her ruby slippers. (In the book, the shoes are silver, but the color was changed for the film to take advantage of the new Technicolor process.) “It’s an archetypal quest story,” said Hanff of the story’s continuing appeal. “Each character—Dorothy, the scarecrow, the tin man, and the lion—has the ability to accomplish something. But they don’t recognize their own talents. Once they connect with these abilities, great things happen. That innocence and optimism is something all of us can relate to.” Hanff joined the club in 1961, the result of writing an honors thesis on Baum in high school. “I corresponded with the club’s founder through a series of very formal letters that always started with ‘Dear Mr. Schiller,’” Hanff recalled. “After several exchanges, Schiller wrote back explaining he was only 16 years old himself, so such formality was unnecessary.” Over the years Hanff rose through the club’s ranks to become president. Next year, he begins an unprecedented sixth term. Forty-three years after its founding, the club, now an endowed, non-profit corporation, is considered one of the world’s definitive sources of Oz-related material. At this year’s special century celebration in Indiana, participants could choose from a “Meet a Munchkin” panel (where lollipop kid Jerry Maren, 80, revealed that he and the other “little people” in the movie earned half what Toto did), a session on gay men’s unique attraction to Oz, or a collectors’ show-and-tell event. Much to President Hanff’s pleasure, the fascination with Oz continues with each new generation, ensuring a base of fans for the next century to come. — D. Lyn Hunter, The Berkeleyan --------------------------------------------------------------------------------  SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION: Actor and philanthropist Paul Newman talks with Haas School of Business Dean Laura Tyson at September’s Forum on Philanthropy in Business. Newman, who donates the after-tax profits from his food company, Newman’s Own, Inc., to charity, was the inaugural speaker for the newly launched Forum. The lecture series is part of the Haas School’s Socially Responsible Business Leadership Program. Newman said he hopes his own philanthropy will inspire other corporations to help those in need. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Blue and Gold and silver and bronze Cal’s sophomore Anthony Ervin added some gold to his Blue in the 50-meter freestyle at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Ervin, the 2000 Pac-10 men’s swimming Newcomer of the Year as a freshman, shared the Olympic gold with teammate and training partner Gary Hall Jr., tying in 21.98 seconds. “The 50 was my place to shine,” Ervin said. “Thankfully, I did.” Ervin also helped the U.S. men stroke their way to a silver medal in the 4x100 freestyle relay, .19 seconds behind the Australian team. Earlier this year, Ervin won the NCAA 100- and 50-meter freestyle titles, becoming the first Cal swimmer to win more than one individual title at an NCAA swimming championship since Matt Biondi in 1987. Cal’s contingent at the Sydney Games won 13 medals (four gold, eight silver, and one bronze), the Bears’ highest total since winning 14 medals in 1988. Eleven current Cal students made their way down under to compete in the Olympics. Sophomore Staciana Stitts captured gold as a member of the U.S. 400-meter medley relay, swimming the breaststroke leg in a qualifying heat. Pitcher Nicole DiSalvio joined the line-up of the Italian softball team; and six male rowers from Cal were distributed among the teams of Yugoslavia, Norway, Canada, and the U.S. Cal Bears on the women’s water polo team also took a place on the winner’s podium at the Games. Current students Ericka Lorenz and Heather Petri, along with Courtney Johnson ’96 and former Cal coach Maureen O’Toole, earned silver. Twenty-two former Berkeley students—including medal winners Jason Kidd and Shareef Abdur-Rahim (gold, basketball), Joy Biefeld Fawcett ’90 (silver, soccer), and Chris Huffins (bronze, decathlon)—also participated in the Games. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Home field advantage In a rare bit of relatively good seismic news, researchers on campus and at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division report that the likelihood of a major quake on the northern section of the Hayward fault – which traverses Memorial Stadium – is much less than had been previously estimated. Using measuring techniques and analysis which have only recently become available, Roland Burgmann, assistant professor of geology and geophysics, has concluded that the deep portions of the fault slip steadily at about the same rate as the surface does. This means the rocks deep below the surface aren’t locked and building up strain that could be released in a catastrophic quake. “However,” cautions Burgmann, “other hazards – from the southern Hayward fault, the San Andreas fault, and other faults – leave the need to build reinforced homes and the need to be prepared just as high as before.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRAGEDY STRIKES STUDENT, FAMILY: Three people died in the early morning hours of August 21 when a fire destroyed this wood-frame house at 2610 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Berkeley. Cal senior Azalea Jusay, 21, and her parents, who had helped Azalea move into the house just two days earlier, were asleep on the second floor when they were trapped by the fire. Jusay, an integrative biology major, was planning on living in the rental home with four other students, all from her hometown of Lakewood in southern California. Only one of the other students, Michelle Plesa, was staying in the house at the time of the fire. Plesa escaped through a second-floor window. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slicing the pie With the United States in the tenth year of the longest running economic expansion since the Civil War, it’s no surprise the political parties are scrambling for ownership of the juiciest American economic pie in a generation. According a report on the State of Working America, released on Labor Day by the Economic Policy Institute, jobs have increased by 20 million and unemployment has decreased to a four-year average of 4.9 percent. Wages have gone up 7.3 percent for entry-level workers. Poverty rates have gone down for Latinos and African Americans. Who gets the credit? Berkeley is a good place to ask that question. In the past eight years, 15 Berkeley economists have advised the Clinton administration on fiscal policy. Professors generally divide the overall credit among three factors: administrative policy (George H. Bush’s 1990 and President Clinton’s 1993 budget deficit reduction packages); monetary policy (Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve Board’s successful handling of interest rates); and productivity growth. Alan Auerbach, Robert D. Burch Professor of Economics and the Law, who advised bipartisan committees in the House and Senate on the 1993 budget deficit reduction package, says, “Politicians always claim too much credit for success, and they always get too much blame for failure.” He adds: “The best politicians can hope to do is not screw up. The economists are the caretakers. It is their job to kill bad ideas.” One idea Auerbach says he wasn’t around to counter was President Reagan’s “hugely irresponsible tax cut. We’ve spent years making that deficit go away.” Brad De Long, deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Treasury Department from 1993 to 1995 and advisor on the Clinton 1993 budget, says Bush deserves credit for the heavy lifting. “Bush and his economic team, along with the Democratic Congress, negotiated a deficit-reduction package in 1990 that was significantly larger than Clinton’s. What I don’t understand is why isn’t George W. Bush claiming credit for what his dad did? Damn if I can figure it out.” Haas School economics professor Janet Yellen, a member of the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve System from 1994 to 1997 and chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1997 to 1999, comes down on the side of the Democrats. “When the president took office in 1993, the deficit was at $290 billion and it was expected to explode. When Brad says that President Bush made a contribution to getting the budget deficit under control, I think he’s quite right. The Bush tax plan did make a difference. But when Clinton came into office, he staked his reputation on dealing with this deficit. I’m an economist, not a politician, but I would point out that the 1993 package was passed without a single Republican vote.” The markets were clearly impressed by the seriousness of the package: “Interest rates went down immediately. Private investment soared. It really moved things in the right direction,” Yellen says. History professor emeritus Richard Abrams is not sure why anyone would want credit for what he sees as a highly selective expansion. He suggests a broader look at the EPI figures: The median U.S. family income—about $48,000—grew just 0.4 percent a year between 1989 and 1999, the same average growth rate that occurred during the 1980s. Debt for middle-income families jumped 35 percent. Latino and African American families account for more than half of the 34 million Americans living in poverty. “We are living in a very ungenerous, self-centered era,” Abrams says. “People are unwilling to put out any money of their own on behalf of what you might say is the commonweal.” — Patricia Cambron Blues in the News  John Kenneth Galbraith, M.A. ’32, Ph.D. ’34, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Clinton. Galbraith, a Harvard economist and author, has served as a presidential advisor and ambassador to India.  Sanjay Govindjee, associate professor of civil engineering, has been hired by Bridgestone/ Firestone to conduct an independent investigation into its defective tires. Much of Govindjee’s research focuses on rubber and metals, and how they deform and degrade under stress.  Harry Low ’52, J.D. ’55, a former appeals court judge, has been named the new California state insurance commissioner. Low’s nomination was unanimously approved by both the Senate and the Assembly.  Jeffrey Schilling ’99 in September was being held hostage by Muslim rebels in the Philippines. Schilling, who converted to Islam six years ago and holds a degree in Near Eastern Studies, had met and married a Filipina woman while visiting the country.  Chang-Lin Tien, chancellor at Berkeley from 1990-97, underwent surgery for treatment of a brain tumor in early September. Tien is one of 19 UC system faculty members to hold the title of University Professor.
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