Uc Berkeley

UC Berkeley student Derek Low has created what might be the most awesomely automated dorm room in America. He calls the room "BRAD," which stands for "Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dormroom" and he's programmed it to do everything from waking him up in the morning to turning out the lights for him at night. That includes an instant party mode -- with laser lights, strobe lights, dance music and even a fog machine -- whenever he hits a wireless emergency party button. When a different mood is required, he can tell the room to go into "romantic mode," and the shades will close, the lights will dim, a disco ball starts to shine and some classic Elton John will automatically start playing.

Political advocacy corrupts academic institutions. Why? Because the mind-set of a genuine academic teacher is in every important respect the opposite of a political activist's. Academic teachers want to promote independent thought and analytical skills; political activists want conformity. The one fosters intellectual curiosity and encourages opposing viewpoints; the latter seeks to shut it down. This vital distinction is well understood. In California, the state Constitution contains this unambiguous statement: "The university shall be entirely independent of all political or sectarian influence and kept free therefrom.

The University of California admitted 43% more out-of-state and international freshmen than last year, significantly boosting its controversial efforts to enroll those higher-paying students, according to data released Tuesday. As a result, officials said they expected the share of the upcoming freshman class from outside California to be somewhat higher than the 12.3% this school year but said the actual proportion remains uncertain because non-Californians are less likely to enroll than resident students.

UC Santa Barbara, according to old stereotypes, may still conjure up the image of a lush campus by the beach, where students can squeeze in a few hours of surfing after class and live in a nearby neighborhood that is one of the nation's best-known party zones. But in reality, UC Santa Barbara over the last three decades increasingly has become a center of scientific research, and its move in that direction was strengthened Saturday with the announcement of a $50-million private donation to energy efficiency research and engineering programs.

Political advocacy corrupts academic institutions. Why? Because the mind-set of a genuine academic teacher is in every important respect the opposite of a political activist's. Academic teachers want to promote independent thought and analytical skills; political activists want conformity. The one fosters intellectual curiosity and encourages opposing viewpoints; the latter seeks to shut it down. This vital distinction is well understood. In California, the state Constitution contains this unambiguous statement: "The university shall be entirely independent of all political or sectarian influence and kept free therefrom.

The rich really are different from the rest of us, scientists have found — they are more apt to commit unethical acts because they are more motivated by greed. People driving expensive cars were more likely than other motorists to cut off drivers and pedestrians at a four-way-stop intersection in the San Francisco Bay Area, UC Berkeley researchers observed. Those findings led to a series of experiments that revealed that people of higher socioeconomic status were also more likely to cheat to win a prize, take candy from children and say they would pocket extra change handed to them in error rather than give it back.

Trying to ease the burden of families squeezed by the recession and skyrocketing tuition costs, UC Berkeley announced plans Wednesday to extend financial aid to thousands of students from households earning $80,000 to $140,000 a year. With the program, which starts next fall, UC Berkeley becomes a pioneer among public universities in a national effort to make a college education more affordable for a wider swath of middle-income families. Well-funded private colleges previously have led the way. UC Berkeley officials called the move a response to reports in California and around the country that some middle-income households are being priced out of the University of California and are reluctant to take on high levels of debt.

A beloved but sometimes forgotten center of Jewish history in the Bay Area will soon have a new home at UC Berkeley and, supporters hope, a new audience of researchers and admirers. The collection of about 10,000 objects and documents, housed until recently at the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, tells a broad and varied history of Jewish faith and life, both on the West Coast and far afield. "There's a kind of poignancy that's in a lot of their collections, and a kind of broader perspective on what Jewish culture is," said Ron Hendel, chairman of UC Berkeley's Jewish studies program.

An armed man fatally shot by UC Berkeley police this week was a 32-year-old student at the university, officials said Wednesday. Investigators were looking into reports that the man, identified as Christopher Travis, had demonstrated erratic behavior in the past, including possible suicide attempts. Travis, an undergraduate who transferred to the UC Berkeley business school this fall, died of his wounds at a hospital, officials said. He was shot by a campus police officer in the school's computer lab Tuesday afternoon after Travis pointed a loaded handgun at officers and refused orders to drop the weapon, authorities said.

The eight people arrested after protesters vandalized the UC Berkeley chancellor's residence on Dec. 11 have not been charged with any crime and may never be, according to the Alameda County district attorney's office. So far there is insufficient evidence to file charges, prosecutors said. UC police will continue investigating who was responsible for the estimated $18,000 worth of damage to windows, light fixtures and large planter urns in front of the house. Teresa Drenick, a district attorney spokeswoman, said it was unclear who the vandals were in the crowd of up to 70 people who were protesting recent large hikes in UC fees.

University of California police and administrators should use mediation instead of confrontation when dealing with most student protests, but pepper spray might remain a necessary tool of last resort, according to a UC draft report on campus civil disobedience. The new study, released Friday, urged that campus police be trained to defuse potentially volatile situations and that UC officials not even mobilize police at peaceful demonstrations. In the rare instances when force is required, the report recommended the campus police try "hands-on pain compliance" such as arm twisting or pressure points "before pepper spray or batons whenever feasible.

A UC Berkeley law professor who helped the Bush administration create policies to justify harsh interrogation techniques and prolonged detention may not be sued by an American citizen detained under those conditions, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Jose Padilla, an American citizen arrested in 2002 and declared an "enemy combatant," may not hold professor John Yoo liable for "gross physical and psychological abuse" that Padilla said he suffered during more than three years of military detention.

UC Berkeley student Derek Low has created what might be the most awesomely automated dorm room in America. He calls the room "BRAD," which stands for "Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dormroom" and he's programmed it to do everything from waking him up in the morning to turning out the lights for him at night. That includes an instant party mode -- with laser lights, strobe lights, dance music and even a fog machine -- whenever he hits a wireless emergency party button. When a different mood is required, he can tell the room to go into "romantic mode," and the shades will close, the lights will dim, a disco ball starts to shine and some classic Elton John will automatically start playing.

When California's highest-achieving students apply to the University of California, the chief factors determining which campus they attend should be which school is the best fit and what qualifications they have for admission, not how much their parents can afford to pay. So the UC regents should be very wary of a report out of UC Berkeley proposing new levels of autonomy for each of the system's 10 schools. That autonomy, according to the proposal coauthored by Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau, would include the ability to set tuition, within certain limits, and to determine how many students to accept from out of state.

The 10 campuses of the UC system should be given more power to govern themselves and be allowed to set their own tuition, decide how many out-of-state students to enroll, approve construction projects and control some investments under a proposal released Monday by UC Berkeley leaders. The plan, which is already provoking debate, would maintain the central Board of Regents for such overarching policy matters as admissions standards, state funding and top appointments. But it contends that UC has gotten so complex and governance has become so balky that campus governing boards should be established and given autonomy over many issues, similar to states in a federal system.

The University of California admitted 43% more out-of-state and international freshmen than last year, significantly boosting its controversial efforts to enroll those higher-paying students, according to data released Tuesday. As a result, officials said they expected the share of the upcoming freshman class from outside California to be somewhat higher than the 12.3% this school year but said the actual proportion remains uncertain because non-Californians are less likely to enroll than resident students.

Richard Sudol of Torrance has been named 1987 recipient of the Bradford S. King Award presented annually by the California Alumni Assn., an organization of UC Berkeley graduates. Sudol, class of 1980. is a charter member of the South Bay Alumni Club and has served as its secretary and student recruitment chairman.

One cannot help but wonder how long UC Berkeley can base admissions on politically rather than academically correct grounds before it is completely driven into the ground. Fortunately there is a silver lining. Once Berkeley is not longer a viable center of learning, no academically qualified students will apply, and all admissions can be politically correct. RICHARD R. HERSHBERGER Riverside

The son of a railroad worker, Earl Warren came from a family keeping a desperate finger hold on a working-class existence at the turn of the last century. Yet when he left high school in Bakersfield in 1908, there was no question where he was headed: to Berkeley and a free education at the University of California. There he proved an indifferent student scholastically but an enthusiastic absorber of "the new life, the freedom, the companionship, the romance of the university," Warren recalled years later.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $10 million to UC Berkeley for the purpose of advancing "big data" research and technologies. The grant was part of a larger initiative by the Obama administration that allocated $200 million around the country to big data technology Thursday.  The Berkeley funds will go toward the university's Algorithms, Machines and People Expedition, which is already conducting several projects tackling...