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Triple crown
At the end of May, the Cal women’s softball team carried something back from Oklahoma City that Cal women athletes have never possessed before: an NCAA national trophy. By scoring six runs in the final inning against defending champion Arizona, the Berkeley women won the national softball title, 6-0. Cal pitcher Jocelyn Forest allowed only one hit and struck out eight in the title game. She was named the outstanding player for the Women’s College World Series as a whole, with four victories and a 0.50 ERA.
The only other national title a Cal women’s team has won was in 1980, in rowing, before the NCAA began overseeing women’s athletics. Cal softball coach Diane Ninemire said: "The women of the Cal athletic department have been successful, but we’ve always just been a little short. Hopefully this is the key that unlocks the door for a lot of us."
In other national champion news, the Cal men’s crew continued to own the key to its sport by winning its fourth consecutive (and 14th overall) Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship on the Cooper River in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in early June.
Also in June, the Cal cycling team won its first-ever National Collegiate Cycling Association Championship, in Burlington, Vermont. Cycling at Cal is a club sport--which means self-financed and self-coached--making the cycling team’s national title all the more impressive.
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Terrorist victim
Violence in the Middle East hit home July 31, when Berkeley graduate Marla Bennett ‘00 was among seven people killed by a terrorist bomb at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Bennett, who majored in political science at Cal, was getting ready for a final exam for her master’s degree when the bomb, hidden in a bag, exploded inside the student center cafeteria.
The 24-year-old realized the dangers she faced living in Israel. In a May 10 article for the San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage she wrote: "Events of the past few months in Israel have led me to believe that each small decision I make--which route I walk to school, whether or not to go out to dinner--may have life-threatening consequences."
"But," she added, "there is nowhere else in the world I would rather be right now. I have a front-row seat for the history of the Jewish people."
Bennett spent her junior year in Israel as part of UC’s Education Abroad Program and, during that time, became interested in helping to find a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. While at Cal, Bennett had been a mainstay of the Jewish community, said Adam Weisberg, a personal friend and director of Berkeley Hillel.
Chancellor Berdahl offered his condolences to Bennett’s family and friends. "Please know that the thoughts and prayers of the entire campus community are with all of you," he said. More than 2,000 people attended her funeral in San Diego on August 5.
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Tops in teaching
The campus recognized five outstanding faculty members with the Distinguished Teaching Award on April 30. This year’s honorees are (left to right): Jeffrey Knapp, associate professor of English; Leslie Kurke, associate professor of classics and comparative literature; Stephen Welter, professor and division chair of insect biology; Tyrone Hayes, associate professor of integrative biology; and Usha Jain, a senior lecturer in Hindi language and literature.
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More losses for Cal football
Even with a new coach and high expectations, the Golden Bear football team will not go to a bowl game this year. In late June, the NCAA banned Cal’s football team from participating in post-season games for 2002-3. Reprimanding the team for past infractions, the NCAA also reduced Cal’s football scholarships by nine and put the team on probation for the next five seasons.
The NCAA imposed the penalties for two infractions by the team, one major and one minor. In 1999, Professor Alex Saragoza gave two players, Ronnie Davenport and Mike Ainsworth, credit for classes they did not attend, allowing them to compete that season when they should have been ineligible. Then, last year, an internal investigation revealed that between 1997 and 2001 football players and recruits had not been required to reimburse the University for incidental hotel expenses, ranging from 75 cents to over $300. The University passed those findings on to the NCAA.
Though some penalty had been expected, few thought the NCAA would be so harsh. "While we anticipated that there would be sanctions by the NCAA, we certainly are surprised by the severity of this penalty," said athletic director Steve Gladstone. Chancellor Robert Berdahl appealed the ruling, which he called "unfairly punitive."
The NCAA sanctions come on top of those imposed by the Pac-10, which last February agreed to the University’s self-imposed punishment of one-year’s probation plus the loss of four scholarships. The NCAA defended its new, more severe reprimand, saying it was necessary because the infractions occurred while Cal was still on probation for giving improper payments of $30,000 to recruit basketball player Jelani Gardner in 1994. Calling Berkeley a "repeat offender," the NCAA also chastised the University for a "lack of institutional control."
Chancellor Berdahl defended the University: "In the case of academic fraud, there is no university that takes this issue more seriously," he said. While he agreed that the 1999 violation was "fully deserving of a serious penalty," Berdahl said he considered the post-season ban "disproportionately extreme."
Since these infractions occurred, both the athletic program and the football team have come under new management. In April 2001, Berdahl hired athletic director Steve Gladstone, who this January hired Oregon’s Jeff Tedford as the new football coach. In July, shortly after the NCAA ruling, Gladstone also announced the hiring of a new associate athletic director for compliance--Foti Mellis from Arizona State. "With a completely new management team in place, we have installed new procedures that will safeguard against this ever happening again," Gladstone said.
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SAT, retake
In late June, the College Board, which produces the SAT, said it plans to add a new writing test--including a 25-minute essay question and multiple-choice grammar questions--to the exam. The new test, which will be introduced in 2005, will replace the controversial "verbal analogies" section with a "critical reading" section.
The math portion of the SAT will also be revised: "quantitative comparison" questions will be eliminated, and the test will be expanded to include higher-level algebra questions.
UC President Richard Atkinson praised the decision to change the test, calling it "a major event in the history of standardized testing." Last year, Atkinson criticized the SAT for being too far removed from the high school curriculum. He was particularly critical of the verbal analogies section, and even threatened to do away with the SAT requirement for UC candidates. It is widely believed that his threat prompted the College Board to change the test.
"This is exactly the right direction to go in," said Atkinson. "I’m particularly pleased about the [addition of a] writing component to the examination. [It’s] going to ensure that teachers, students, and their families are going to be focused on improving students’ writing skills."
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Julie Louis Gerberding, MPH ‘90, was appointed the new director of the Centers for Disease Control in July. As acting deputy director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, she helped lead the CDC’s response to the anthrax scare last fall. |
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The Library was ranked first among public university libraries by the Association of Research Libraries in June. It was ranked third overall, behind Harvard and Yale. |
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Gordon Moore ‘50, co-founder of Intel Corp. and author of Moore’s Law, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his role in developing the microchip. He was honored by President Bush during a ceremony at the White House on July 11. |
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Jessica Sharzer, M.A. ‘97, is the winner of a "Student Academy Award" from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She won the gold medal in the narrative category for her film "The Wormhole," which tells the story of a troubled boy who tries to go back in time to reunite his family. |
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Rick Young, Boalt '01, wrote a much-publicized voter initiative that would require all coffee brewed in Berkeley to be fair-trade, organic, or shade-grown. While at Cal, Young successfully persuaded the law school to switch to fair-trade, organic coffee. |
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