Quotes, statements, bon mots, and noteworthy utterances from the campus and beyond
03 December 2008
"Let's hope all those years of study have done them some good."
Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw, former chair of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), noting that Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke and Berkeley economics professor Christina Romer, appointed CEA chair by President-elect Obama, are both scholars of the Great Depression.
Boston Globe, Nov. 25
"Every year is a tough budget year for students."
Berkeley Law second-year student (and University of California Students Association president) Lucero Chavez, at a weekend UCLA rally protesting higher-education budget cuts.
Los Angeles Times, Nov. 24
"If it fails, it will be a blow to those of us who champion provocative architecture in the United States."
New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff, on the prospect that budget woes could prevent the campus from constructing the planned new Berkeley Art Museum, designed by Toyo Ito, on a downtown parcel. Nov. 24
"We see this as unwarranted political interference in the academic activities of the University of California."
From an Oct. 18 letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed by more than 400 faculty and academic staff from UC and CSU campuses statewide (nearly 100 of them from Berkeley), calling for funding to be restored to the Miguel Contreras Labor Program, the only UC program eliminated from the current budget as a line item. Current-year funding for the program has since been authorized by UC President Mark Yudof.
"Peter was expelled from Berkeley for unauthorized use of a bullhorn."
Ralph Nader recalling Green Party activist Peter Camejo at an International House memorial gathering for Camejo, who died Sept. 13.
Oakland Tribune, Nov. 24
"There's nothing here. That has to change."
ASUC Director Nadesan Permaul, assessing the current state of Lower Sproul Plaza.
510Report.org, Nov. 24
"[O]ur political involvement can't end with our fashion choices."
Assistant Professor of African American Studies Leigh Raiford, commenting on the popularity of Obama-emblazoned outerwear among young people.
San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 30
"If you want to be a public anthropologist, then do it, I always did. But don't expect to be rewarded for it."
Professor of Anthropology Nancy Scheper-Hughes, interviewed at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in San Francisco.
Insidehighered.com, Nov. 24
"I can't think of another research project that has as much upside or risk."
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences David Patterson, director of the campus's new Parallel Computing Lab, on the challenge of developing a new programming model for advanced microprocessors.
EETimes.com, Dec. 1