News
Briefs
Posted June 9, 1999
UC Botanical Garden Extends Summer Hours
Communing with nature is now easier with the Botanical Garden's extended hours of operation during the summer -- 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. everyday through Labor Day.
Flora and fauna lovers can take advantage of the new hours with a docent-led "Twilight Tour" of the garden, given each Wednesday in July and August at 5:30 p.m.
"Our new summer hours give those who are chained to their desks from nine to five a chance to get out and enjoy the garden at a wonderful time of the day," said Nancy Swearengen, coordinator of volunteers at the garden.
And don't forget about "Father's Day at the Garden" on June 20. Dads who bring a child get in free from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For information, call 643-2755.
Herbarium Offers Courses In Botanical Illustration
Renowned
natural science illustrator Linda Ann Vorobik will teach two
five-day summer courses offered through the Friends of the
Jepson Herbarium.
The courses are given at UC's Crooked Creek White Mountain Research Facility located on the east side of the Sierra Nevada; most of the time will be spent illustrating plants in the field.
"Botanical Illustration: Basics and Rendering in Pen and Ink," is offered Aug. 20 to 25; "Botanical Illustration: Creating Final Images in Watercolor or Gouache," is Aug. 25 to 30. Participants may register for one or both courses.
Vorobik holds a PhD in biology and was principal illustrator for the bible of California flora, "The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California."
For information, contact Staci Markos or Betsy Ringrose at the Jepson Herbarium, 643-7008, or email ringrose@uclink4.berkeley.edu.
Critical Sense Spring Issue Interrogates the Law
"Interrogating the Law" is the focus of the spring issue of the Berkeley graduate student journal, Critical Sense. The latest issue includes articles on the war on drugs, political symbolism and pop art, language and the law, and gay parenting.
Critical Sense is a semiannual interdisciplinary journal publishing campus scholars' work in political and cultural theory. Past issues focused on the body, race and nation, and violence.
For information contact Masha Raskolnikov at the Department of Rhetoric, 7408 Dwinelle Hall.
Proposed State Law Would Require Service Fee For UC Unionized Staff
The California legislature is currently considering a law requiring union-represented University employees to either join the union that represents them or pay it a "fair share service fee." The fee would help defray the costs of negotiation, contract administration and other activities that a union conducts as employees' exclusive bargaining representative.
Under the proposed law (SB 645), all union-represented CSU and UC employees could be required to pay fees for at least four years, starting Jan. 1, 2000. After four years, the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) would hold an election to determine whether the arrangement should continue or be rescinded. From January 2005 on, the arrangement could be rescinded or reinstated if 30 percent of the employees in the bargaining unit petitioned PERB for an election.
For information, see www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html and search for Senate Bill 645.
Lucent Endows Lecture Series on Communications
On May 20, Lucent Technologies announced a $100,000 endowment for an annual lecture series for the Management of Technology program, an interdepartmental graduate program of the Haas School of Business and the College of Engineering. Lucent also created an annual $20,000 graduate student fellowship to support research in this area.
Through the new Lucent Technologies Communications Networking Lectures series, leading executives will share their views on the technology and project management requirements of the $400 billion market for communications networks.
"The industry increasingly needs skilled technologists and business managers for rapidly changing networks -- optical, wireless, wireline, packet, circuit," noted Richard McGinn, chairman and CEO of Lucent. The lectures, he said, would help to "inspire students to meet industry challenges."
Postdoc Celebration Is Slated for June 10
An event celebrating campus postdoctoral fellows will be held Thursday, June 10, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Lipman Room, 8th floor of Barrows Hall.
Sponsored by Graduate Dean Joseph Cerny and Director of Graduate Research Maresi Nerad, the event will honor Linda McPherron for her work, over the past two years, in helping to create the Berkeley Postdoc Association.
The festivities will also honor the officers of both the Berkeley Postdoctoral Association and the Lawrence Berkeley Postdoctoral Society.
Construction Starts at Fruitvale's Sanborn Park
A groundbreaking ceremony to mark the beginning of construction based on a new master plan for Oakland's Sanborn Park took place Saturday, June 5 to wide community fanfare.
The University-Oakland Metropolitan Forum -- part of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development in the College of Environmental Design -- played an integral role in ongoing community efforts to revitalize the park, located near Fruitvale Avenue and International Boulevard.
Through a UC Berkeley/Oakland Joint Community Development grant from HUD, the forum provided support for community organizing, design assistance through the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, and capital funding for the park's landscape construction. Work on the new community-designed park should be completed by October.
Campus Staff, Student Data Available from UCOP
Official data on students and staff at all nine UC campuses were released recently in the "Statistical Summary of Students and Staff for Fall 1998."
One of a continuous series of reports from UC Office of the President, it includes data on enrollment and degrees conferred by campus, status and level for fall 1998 (as well as fall 1994 and fall 1997). It also details personnel data by campus, pay status (full vs. part-time), academic discipline, ethnicity and gender.
Contents of the report are published on the web at www.ucop.edu/ucophome/uwnews/stat.
June 9 - July 13,
1999 (Volume 27, Number 35)
Copyright 1999, The Regents of the University of
California.
Produced and maintained by the Office
of Public Affairs
at UC
Berkeley.
Comments? E-mail berkeleyan@pa.urel.berkeley.edu.