News briefs

20 March 2002 |

Two campus forums will address pros, cons of admissions tests
Berkeley’s Academic Senate and Center for Studies in Higher Education will hold two forums, from 3 to 5 p.m. on April 3 and April 17, to discuss UC admissions policies and the use of standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT, in undergraduate admissions.

The purpose of the forums is to educate the members of the Academic Senate, as well as the campus community, on the merits and drawbacks of these standardized admissions tests, including the SAT I.

The April 3 forum is entitled, “The SAT and UC: Recent Research on the Predictive Validity of Standardized Tests.” Representatives from the systemwide Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools will present an overview of its recent report. The board findings, which have been submitted to the Board of Regents, recommend that the SAT I be replaced by a new array of admissions tests.

The April 17 forum is entitled “Rethinking the SAT: Using Standardized Tests in the Admissions Process.” A general presentation will open the forum, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Both forums will be held in 2040 Valley Life Science Building and are open to staff, faculty and students. For information, contact the Academic Senate office at 642-4226.

Memorial and lecture will honor late botanical garden director
A memorial ceremony and bench dedication in tribute to the late Herbert Baker will be held at the UC Botanical Garden’s conference center from 2 to 6 p.m., Sunday, April 7.

One of the most influential post-war plant evolutionists, Baker came to Berkeley in 1957, directed the garden until 1969, and retired in 1980. He died last July.

There will also be a free public lecture in Baker’s memory , “Ethno-botanical Insights into the Cause of ALS, Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease among the Chamorro of Guam,” by Paul Cox, director of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. The lecture is on Saturday, April 6, at 2 p.m. at the Lawrence Hall of Science.

To facilitate planning, call 643-2755 if you would like to attend either event.

Arts consortium offers curriculum development fellowships
Faculty members whose scholarly work encompasses the visual or performing arts are invited to apply for summer research fellowships of up to $3,000. The fellowship from the campus’s Consortium for the Arts will fund the development of interdisciplinary lecture courses on the arts. Preference will be given to course proposals that involve more than one medium and venue.

Campus faculty should submit a brief description of a lecture course they want to develop. The deadline is April 23. Awards will be announced in early May.

For information, call 642-4268 or see www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/bca.

Plans proceed on Stanley Hall replacement building
With two recent victories — one with Berkeley City Council and the other at the Board of Regents — plans for the new biosciences and bioengineering building at the site of Stanley Hall are moving ahead. Demolition is tentatively set for December, with utility work in the area to begin this summer.

On March 14, the regents approved the capital budget, estimated at $143 million, for the building, which will replace 47-year-old Stanley Hall. It will be funded primarily through private gifts with state funding. State funding will come in part from funds approved for Gov. Davis’s California Institutes for Science and Innovation.

The Stanley Hall replacement project is part of a larger program called the Northeast Quadrant Science and Safety Projects. In late February, the campus reached agreement with the City Council over the projects’ environmental impact report, avoiding a threatened lawsuit.

In addition to the Stanley Hall replacement, the northeast projects include replacing the old portion of Davis Hall and renovation and seismic strengthening of Cory Hall, the Naval Architecture Building and new Davis Hall, as well as additional parking at the Lower Hearst parking structure.