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News briefs

03 December 2003

UAW graduate-student instructors’ strike set for Dec. 4
The United Auto Workers union — which represents UC graduate-student instructors, readers, and tutors — plans to hold a systemwide strike beginning Thursday, Dec. 4.

The university has announced that classes will be held and students should plan to attend. Campus employees are expected to come to work; no employee may be compensated for work that has not been performed unless he or she is on approved leave.

The campus will provide additional guidance, as warranted, on the NewsCenter, newscenter.berkeley.edu, and through direct e-mail communications. The most complete information regarding ongoing negotiations will be available from UC Office of the President, which negotiates contracts with all UC unions on a systemwide basis. Its website is found at www.ucop.edu.

Make your gift to the Charitable Campaign online by Dec. 5
The annual campus Charitable Campaign is drawing to a close. The deadline to make a donation is Friday, Dec. 5.

This year, for donors’ convenience and to save administrative costs, the pledge process is largely online, at www.berkeley.edu/charitable/. Paper forms are also available to employees without Internet access, through Elisabeth Gordon at 642-1574.

Faculty and staff may earmark their gift for any charity, or may donate to their own department or any department or program on campus. If giving to a campus entity through the e-Way site accessed via the above link, choose the “Write-in Agencies” option and provide contact information as requested.

Lean economic times have hit many charities hard. Last year, the Berkeley campus was one of five Bay Area organizations that increased its giving over the previous year.

Dec. 4 campus event honors Huerta
Labor leader Dolores Huerta, recently named to the UC Board of Regents, will be the guest of honor at a reception to be held at Alumni House on Thursday, Dec. 4, from 4 to 7 p.m. The public is invited.

A 40-year veteran of the modern civil-rights movement, Huerta is co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, its first vice president, and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

Live music and refreshments will be provided. To RSVP, send an e-mail to laborcenter@uclink.berkeley.edu or call 643-4312.

Chronicle of Higher Ed features Mason’s ‘Do Babies Matter?’ study
Why is managing children and an academic career so much more difficult for women than for men? What, if anything, should colleges and universities do to make it easier?

The Chronicle of Higher Education asks these questions in its Dec. 5 issue, featuring research findings of Mary Ann Mason, dean of Berkeley’s Graduate Division. Professor Mason’s national study, “Do Babies Matter?” — on how child-rearing affects the careers of academic men and women — is featured in a lengthy article by the Chronicle’s Robin Wilson. On the journal’s website, chronicle.com/, Mason will host a live online discussion on motherhood in academe at 10 a.m. PST, Friday, Dec. 5.

There’s nothing Hokie about being bowl-bound
Cal’s football team has accepted an invitation to play in the Insight Bowl on Friday, Dec. 26, in Phoenix, Ariz. Cal (7-6) will meet the Virginia Tech Hokies (8-4) of the Big East conference in Cal’s first bowl appearance since 1996. (What’s a Hokie? Visit www.hokiesports.com/whatsahokie.html to find out.)

The game will be held at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, and televised nationally on ESPN, starting at 5 p.m. PST. Fans may order bowl tickets online or by mail, fax, or telephone — for information, go to calbears.com and click on “2003 Insight Bowl Central.” For seating priority, orders must be received by Friday, Dec. 12.

Travel packages are being put together by Cal Athletics and the California Alumni Association; bowl tickets must be purchased separately. Details will be announced soon at alumni.berkeley.edu.

Energy curtailment begins Dec. 24; no paid leave for UC employees
A systemwide decision has been made to turn down a proposal by Chancellor Robert Berdahl to grant paid leave to UC employees for days surrounding the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Berdahl proposed the idea to the UC Council of Chancellors on Nov. 6, as a way to give employees more time off “without cutting into their accrued vacation,” he said. However, under UC systemwide policy, all campuses must follow the same practice for granting holiday and vacation time. The proposal presented problems for campuses on the quarter system (all UC campuses except Berkeley) — winter quarter begins Jan. 5, and the workload is especially heavy in the week prior to the start of classes. In addition, campuses with medical centers could not close their operations to accommodate additional leave for employees.

For details on Berkeley’s 2003 holiday energy curtailment — Dec. 24 through Jan. 1 — see Vice Chancellor Horace Mitchell’s Nov. 13 memo at www.berkeley.edu:5027/cgi-bin/deans_memos/deans_memos.pl.

Sexual harrassment prevention program continues online
Faculty and staff are urged to take the campus’s online educational program on sexual harrassment issues, found at newmedialearning.com/psh/ucberkeley/index.htm. To date, more than 4,000 faculty and staff have completed the web-based training.

Talk looks at Israeli ‘separation wall’
A leading voice opposing the “separation wall” being built by the Israeli government, Yigal Bronner, will be the featured speaker in an event set for noon to 2 p.m., Friday, Dec. 5, in 223 Moses.

Bronner is a professor at Tel Aviv University, an activist in the Arab-Jewish Partnership, and a conscientious objector who refused to serve in the occupied territories. Professor Judith Butler will assist in the discussion. For information, call the campus Human Rights Center at 642-0965.

Library’s toy and book drive to benefit local homeless children
The Library is currently accepting donations of new, unwrapped toys and books for children up to 18 years of age.

Toys will be collected at the security desks at Moffitt Library and at Doe Library’s south entrance through the morning of Friday, Dec. 19 — though organizers hope to receive most donations by Friday, Dec. 12. Donations are tax deductible, and tax-deduction forms will be available.

Donations will go to the Jobs Consortium, a nonprofit agency serving the homeless in Alameda County. For information, call 643-7486 or e-mail akanberg@ library.berkeley.edu.

Tribute to ’60s activists includes campus figures
“The Long Walk to Freedom,” a traveling tribute to 28 civil-rights activists of the 1960s, features two individuals close to home — Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies Carlos Muñoz and Black Scholar Senior Editor Robert Allen, a lecturer in political science and ethnic studies.

The free exhibit — featuring 12 Bay Area civil-rights veterans and 16 of their East Coast peers — runs until Dec 31. at Oakland’s African American Museum Library, 659 14th St. (at Martin Luther King Jr. Way). Gallery hours are noon to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

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