Cal Day, set for April 20, is only a month away
Faculty prepare goats, thespians and more for annual campus open house

By D. Lyn Hunter, Public Affairs

Vladimir and Tinsel clear blaze-prone brush from the East Bay hills. These weed-chewers will make an appearance at Cal Day as guests of College of Natural Resources faculty member Lynn Huntsinger, who will lecture on the use of goats to help manage vegetation growth and reduce fire danger. Noah Berger photo

20 March 2002 | With Cal Day just a month away, faculty member Lynn Huntsinger is in the thick of preparation — training her goats, Vladimir and Tinsel, for their appearance at the campus’s day-long open house, Saturday, April 20.

The animals will serve as a live backdrop for Huntsinger’s talk on how goats can help manage vegetation and reduce fire danger.

Following the noontime lecture, the associate professor of environmental science, policy and management will tether her sidekicks to a cart to tour around campus. Along the way, she’ll tout the virtues and debunk stereotypes attached to these cud-chewers.

“Goats don’t stink and they don’t eat everything they see,” Huntsinger said proudly. “They’re actually quite picky eaters.”

Vladimer and Tinsel have a bit more to master before their Cal Day debut.

“Right now, I’m working with them on how to stop and turn,” said Huntsinger, who uses a playground near her home to school them in cart control. “They also need to increase their fitness, so my daughters and I run up and down hills with them for exercise.”

Elsewhere on campus, English Professor Alan Nelson is fine-tuning a production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” for Cal Day.

“We’ve been rehearsing every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon for some time now,” said Nelson. “I’m working with the students on articulating the dialogue and speaking loudly enough to be heard by the last person in the back row.”

Nelson’s students will perform scenes from the play on Cal Day from noon to 1 p.m. in the Maude Fife Room (315 Wheeler).

“Shakespeare is a natural way for the English department to show its ‘wares’ to prospective students, parents and the world at large,” said Nelson.

Other faculty, with the help of staff, are also busy laying the groundwork for Cal Day’s multitude of lectures, demonstrations, experiments, tours and performances. Engineering researcher Winthrop Williams, for example, will show how future surgical procedures will be affected by technological advances; Dorothy Tabron, professor of integrative biology, will guide visitors through physical endurance tests; and Professor Joel Fajans will demonstrate how physics governs the balancing, steering and braking of bicycles.

For information on Cal Day, see www.berkeley.edu/calday or call 642-2294.