Quotes, bon mots, and noteworthy utterances from the campus and beyond
28 August 2009
“A mathematically literate population is a good thing for California and for the nation.”
Professor of Education and math-teaching expert Alan Schoenfeld, explaining why he’s been a Berkeley faculty member, 80-hour weeks and all, for more than 25 years. Sacramento Bee, Aug. 12
“The women at Berkeley have the same biological clocks as other women, but they are getting jobs.”
American Chemical Society board member Valerie Kuck on the Berekeley chemistry department’s superlative career record of graduating female Ph.D.s. Inside Higher Ed, Aug. 17
“We’re on a precarious road, and wherever it leads, it’s not toward democracy.”
Professor of Public Policy Robert Reich, castigating the White House for its concessions to the pharmaceutical industry. Salon, Aug. 10
“Anyone holding themself out as a public intellectual has one duty: to be smart. Being smart involves a) checking your arithmetic, b) building up your intellectual tools, c) using Google, d) reading works until you understand them, and e) not writing things where you have absolutely no clue about what you are talking about.”
Professor of Economics Brad DeLong, in his blog “Grasping Reality With Both Hands,”
Aug. 19
“I thank God that Dr. Regina Benjamin is a fat woman.”
Joanne Ikeda, lecturer, Department of Nutritional Sciences, responding to criticisms leveled against Surgeon General nominee Benjamin for being overweight. Ikeda noted that more than half of “overweight people” are in fact metabolically healthy. ABC News, July 21