Berkeleyan

News Briefs

26 August 2004

Cal athletes bring Olympic medals home (some even to the U.S.)

At press time, Cal athletes have reaped a stack of Olympic medals in Athens, and more are on the line in the final days of the Games. Swimmer Natalie Coughlin claimed five medals, golds in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay (helping the U.S. to a world-record time of 7:53.42) and in the 100-meter backstroke, silvers in the 4x100-meter freestyle and medley relays, and a bronze in the 100-meter freestyle. Senior Duje Draganja won the silver medal in the 50-meter freestyle in men’s swimming, competing for Croatia. In men’s rowing, Jake Wetzel ’02 helped Canada to a silver medal in the fours. Cal alum Peter Cipollone was the coxswain for the U.S. gold-medal-winning eight crew, which beat the Netherlands for top honors. Rowing standouts Megan Dirkmaat ’00 and Laurel Korholz ’93 helped the United States cross the finish line to win a silver in the women’s eights, just behind the Romanian team. And beach volleyballers Holly McPeak and her partner, Elaine Youngs, defeated Australia’s team to take the bronze medal.

Students offered legal, discounted music from online library

Berkeley students will have discounted access to an online music service under a deal announced August 24. For $2 a month, instead of the standard $9.95, students will have unlimited access to RealNetworks’ Rhapsody music library of more than 725,000 songs; they will continue to pay 79 cents per song to download the music.

The campus began offering the service on Saturday to its 32,650 full-time students. Staff and faculty are not eligible to participate.

“Students get a great deal, and it will save the university a lot of money if it is successful,” said Cliff Frost, director of Communication and Network Services. The Rhapsody service is efficient and its use is less likely to overwhelm the campus’s computer network, Frost said.

The deal comes in the wake of a crackdown by the entertainment industry on illegal downloads of copyrighted material. Last year such downloads from residence-hall computers resulted in hundreds of copyright-violation notices sent to the university and four lawsuits brought against Cal students as individuals by the recording industry.

Get an updated map of campus and city

Public Affairs’ award-winning revision of the official map of campus and the city of Berkeley is available for sale. Winner of the 2001 University and College Design Association award, it offers a three-dimensional, bird’s-eye view of campus, as well as local features such as hotels, restaurants, and bookstores. Bicycle routes and street grades throughout the Berkeley area (including portions of Oakland, Emeryville, Albany, Kensington, and Richmond) are also included. The updated map shows campus-shuttle routes, disabled-access points, all campus ATM locations, and recent changes to university property.

Resource Development has produced the map for sale. Individual maps can be purchased at the Cal Student Store for $4; campus units and local businesses can order them in quantity to resell at a profit. To order 25 or more, at $3 each, go to www.calmarketplace.org and click on the map banner link near the top of the page.

Botanical Garden volunteer orientation is Sept. 16

Members of the community are invited to attend a three-hour volunteer orientation and tour at the UC Botanical Garden on Thursday, Sept. 16, starting at 9:30 a.m. Attendees may sign up for the garden’s docent training — an 18-week course beginning Thursday, Sept. 23 (the fee is $150) — or explore other volunteer opportunities. The orientation is free, but registration is required. For information or to register, call Candice Schott at 643-1924.

For the record . . .

In our August 19 issue, we neglected to list a web address for the new disability-rights website created by the Regional Oral History Office. That URL is bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/drilm. Additionally, in that issue’s “Publications” section, we incorrectly identified Kim Voss, co-author of Hard Work: Remaking the American Labor Movement (University of California Press). Voss is professor and chair of the Department of Sociology.