News briefs
16 April 2003
Campus launches budget website
Public Affairs has created a website on the impact of the state budget crisis on the campus. The site, which is part of the NewsCenter, is online at newscenter.berkeley.edu/news/budget. Its features include a way to submit savings or budget suggestions to campus management, and links to a comprehensive set of budget-related information.
Large courses are focus of May 2 symposium
Teachers of large lecture courses are invited to attend an e-Berkeley Symposium, “Improving Large Lecture Courses,” scheduled for Friday, May 2, at the Clark Kerr Conference Center. Registration for the symposium is from 8:30 to 9 a.m., followed by plenary and breakout sessions from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For information, contact Jon Conhaim at conhaim@uclink.berkeley.edu or 643-2255.
Sign up for Rebuilding Together Weekend
Berkeley staff, faculty, and students are invited to help provide free repairs in the local community during Rebuilding Together Weekend, April 26 and 27.
Rebuilding Together, formerly called Christmas in April, is a national volunteer organization that provides repairs for community facilities, low-income seniors, and people with disabilities. Cal teams this year will work on two homes and, in partnership with the city of Berkeley, on Willard Middle School.
Work runs from 8:30 a.m. to late afternoon. For the school and one home, the workday will be Saturday, April 26; for the second local home, the main workday will be on Sunday.
Registration forms are available at communityrelations.berkeley.edu/rebuildingtogether_regform.doc and at a number of campus locations. Information may be found at Rebuilding Together at www.rebuildingtogether.com or by calling 644-8979.
April 21 event addresses equanimity in trying times
A group of distinguished scholars will address uncertainty, resilience, and compassion in the face of conflict at a free public event on Monday, April 21. The discussion, “Living Peacefully in a Time of Turmoil,” will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in 10 Evans Hall.
Participating scholars are James Donohue, president and professor of ethics at the Graduate Theological Union; Dacher Keltner, Berkeley psychology professor and co-director of the campus’s Center for the Development of Peace and Well-Being; and Meg Zweiback, a Parents’ Press columnist and associate clinical professor of nursing at UC San Francisco’s School of Nursing. Each will offer insights on how to live peacefully in a time of turmoil — Donohue contributing perspectives from religion and ethics, Keltner from psychology, and Zweiback from her work with families and children.
Prof seeks inquiry into plunder of Iraqi national treasures
Andrew Stewart, a Berkeley professor of ancient Mediterranean art and archaeology in the departments of classics and history of art, is working with a colleague at UCLA to request a U.S. Senate investigation into the ransacking of the Iraq’s National Library and Baghdad’s National Museum following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government.
The petition asks California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to launch a Senate investigation to determine U.S. responsibilities for the pillaging of Iraqi cultural treasures — and what, if anything, might be done to recover them. The petition also asks the Senate to ratify the 1954 Hague Treaty for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.
The National Museum held such items as the 4,000-year old copper head of an Akkadian king, colossal statues, ancient manuscripts, and the tablets containing Hammurabi’s Code, one of the earliest codes of law. The library — which was burned down — housed one of the oldest surviving copies of the Quran.
Earthquake expert to speak Tuesday
The campus’s seismological laboratory has announced a new lecture series — to be held each April, which is Earthquake Awareness Month in California — in commemoration of the April 18, 1906, earthquake.
The inaugural lecture in the series will be delivered by David Schwarz of the U.S. Geological Survey at 10 a.m., Tuesday, April 22. Schwartz leads the Earthquake Probabilities Working Group, which in 1999 published 30-year earthquake probabilities for the Bay Area.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Sibley Auditorium in the Bechtel Engineering Center. Contact Lind Gee at 643-9449 for information.
Service-learning grants offer up to $2,500
The campus’s Service-Learning Research and Develop-ment Center is accepting applications for the fall 2003 service-learning instructional minigrants program. The grants provide assistance of up to $2,500 to faculty who integrate community-service activities into the academic curriculum.
Deadline for applications is 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 30. To download an application form, go to gse.berkeley.edu/ research/slc/grants.html.For information, contact Jane Po at janepo@uclink.berkeley.edu or at 643-0513.