NEWS RELEASE, 8/13/96 Berkeley -- The first class of the new millennium arrives at the University of California at Berkeley for Welcome Week beginning Aug. 19 followed by classes starting Aug. 26.

by Public Information

Berkeley -- The first class of the new millennium arrives at the University of California at Berkeley for Welcome Week beginning Aug. 19 followed by classes starting Aug. 26. The new freshmen, the Class of 2000, arrive with the good news that there are no undergraduate fee increases for the second year in a row. This is the largest freshman class in more than a decade. New students offered enrollment accepted in record numbers, signaling that UC Berkeley continues to grow in prestige and value. New students will gather Aug. 21 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Calapalooza, a gathering featuring music, food and an opportunity to learn about campus activities and services. The event takes place in the Underhill parking lot south of campus on College Avenue. Several new courses this fall focus on the timely and topical, including a course looking at presidential elections, another examining press coverage of the fall election, a class exploring through literature women's complex relationship with food and a new high-tech calculus course. In addition, PhD students can enroll in a class titled, "Getting Your Doctorate and Getting a Good Job." Three new deans take over this fall in social welfare, engineering and journalism. On the sports front, the Golden Bears return this fall with the campus's Olympic medal tally up following the games in Atlanta and a new head football coach and women's basketball coach. Fall '96 by the numbers: --Total number of students expected to enroll for fall '96: 29,675 --Number of new freshmen: 3,820 --Number of new transfer students: 1,560 --Number of undergraduates: 21,125 --Number of graduate students: 8,550 --Cost of fees for California residents: $4,354 for the year, including health insurance (no change from last year) --Cost of out-of-state tuition and fees: $12,748 for the year, including health insurance (up by $695 from last year) --Additional cost, above fees and tuition, of professional schools for newly enrolled students: law and business, $6,000 a year; optometry, $2,000 a year. --The cost of campus housing with 14 meals a week ranges from $6,405 a year in a triple room to $8,885 for a single room in a suite. --Number of students living in campus housing: 4,930 --All the major high-rise residence halls are now seismically retrofitted. Story Tips: --Contact the Public Information Office representative noted at the end of each tip at (510) 642-3734 for more information on stories below and for other back-to-school information. Biggest Freshman Enrollment in a Decade UC Berkeley has more freshmen this fall than it has had in more than a decade. The total number of applications to UC Berkeley was also up, jumping by approximately 10 percent. "I am pleased by this new evidence of Berkeley's increasing attractiveness to students," said The Vice Chancellor and Provost Carol T. Christ. "We have added sections to our fall freshman offerings in order to ensure that students will be able to take the courses they need." Consequently, UC Berkeley classes are no more full than last year. The campus is also managing new student services closely to make sure the large incoming class is well accommodated. The new numbers reflect more students from almost all ethnic backgrounds selecting UC Berkeley, including Asian, African American, Chicano/Latino and white students. (See table attached.) "Many parents are anxious about whether they can pay for college. But we are able to ensure that a Berkeley education is available to every student regardless of need," said Financial Aid Director Richard Black. "We can meet the need." (Contact: Public Information Office) Millennium Bears Arrive The 3,820 new freshmen form UC Berkeley's Class of 2000, which is 10 times larger than Berkeley's last Class of '00 -- The freshmen class of 1900 had 324 students. They called themselves the century class and even had their own cheer, "UC Century, rah, rah, rah! Nineteen hundred, California!" They debated the merits of co-ed education (there were 220 men and 104 women in the class), deplored their loss to Stanford in about every sport including baseball, football and tennis, and pledged themselves to "the mighty events in which the University of California is destined to participate. California, upon the Pacific shore, suddenly confronts the Orient. Upon her, as upon the nation, new duties devolve, and to her University falls the task of educating those who are to shape her policy and destiny," they said. (Contact: Kathleen Scalise) Three New Deans Three new deans take key positions on campus this fall. Professor Paul R. Gray is the new dean of the College of Engineering. He holds the Edgar R. and Harold H. Buttner Chair in Electrical Engineering and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Orville H. Schell takes over as dean of the Graduate School of Journalism. An expert on China, Schell has written seven books on the subject and has been a correspondent for New Yorker Magazine. The new dean of the School of Social Welfare is James Midgley, a pioneer in the field of international social development from Louisiana State University. Midgley is expected to lead the school into the era of the global economy. He will join the campus Oct. 1. Midgley was recently given the Sarnat Award in social work for, among other achievements, his leadership in founding and directing a program in social policy at the London School of Economics. He has been an international adviser on social welfare to governments and organizations including the World Bank and the Planned Parenthood Federation. (Contact: Public Information Office) He's a 16-year-old Braine, or is it Brain? What's in a name? Everything, if you're 16-year-old Andrew Braine. This fall, the Castro Valley resident is an incoming junior at UC Berkeley. He finished four years of high school -- and two years of junior college -- in two and a half years. Braine, a history major, hopes for enough time to join the Cal Marching Band. He's also signed up for orchestra and chorus. He plays several instruments, including trumpet and string bass. Admitting he's an "Old Blue, through and through," Braine never considered attending any other college or university. His parents, Raymond and Jean, both received their PhDs from UC Berkeley, and Braine says he's hardly missed a Cal football game. This summer, Braine got his first taste of college life by taking a UC Berkeley ethnomusicology class. He earned an A+. (Contact: Gretchen Kell) Poetry for Lunch The man who is bringing poetry to the public eye, U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, is bringing poetry to the UC Berkeley campus with a new monthly lunch-time poetry reading. The launch of the "Lunch Poems" series is scheduled for Sept. 5 with 10 faculty members -- including Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien -- reading their favorite poems. Hass, a UC Berkeley English professor, and series organizer Zack Rogow scoured the campus in search of a broad range of poetry readers and found them in unexpected places. Their final choices for the Sept. 5 reading are: brain biologist Marian Diamond; anthropologist and folklore specialist Alan Dundes; Walter Alvarez, better known for his theory that an asteroid killed off the dinosaurs but who occasionally uses poetry in his geology classes; plus faculty from music, drama, athletics, African American studies and electrical engineering. In October the series switches to its standard format -- readings by a well-known poet. Poets slated to appear in the series are Mark Doty (Oct. 3), Alan Williamson (Nov. 7), Lorna Dee Cervantes (Dec. 5), Sekou Sundiata (Feb. 6), Linda McCarriston (March 6) and Sharon Olds (April. 10). Readings will take place 12:10 p.m. to 12:50 p.m. in the Morrison Room of Doe Library. (Contact: Robert Sanders) Timely and Provocative New Classes Steven Isenberg, former publisher of New York Newsday, is teaching a blow-by-blow class on press coverage of the presidential election. The Mass Communications class will focus on issues and candidates' personal style and idioms. Professor Nelson Polsby is teaching Political Science 98: Presidential Elections. It will focus on the current presidential election particularly election processes, voting behavior and representation. Alix Schwartz, a lecturer in women's studies and a cook specializing in appetizers, is teaching a class, Women's Literature about Food. It will explore women's complex relation to food through the reading and discussion of several novels. She notes that food has served as a creative outlet for women, a way of showing love, of seducing lovers and of nurturing themselves. You're about to receive your PhD but have no idea what to do with it. Michael Ranney's class, "Getting a Doctorate and Getting a Good Job," can help. Ranney, a professor at the Graduate School of Education is a specialist in problem solving and reasoning. Ranney said he will lead students -- often those who lack good mentors -- through the entire process of planning their post doctoral life, including looking for jobs, writing a vita and job application letters, "schmoozing" prospective employers, and even what foods to avoid during a lunch interview. Of the 12 people who took his class the only other time he taught it, those who received their PhDs are now employed. (Contact: Public Information Office) Unearthing Environmental Studies Undergraduate programs in environmental studies at UC Berkeley have expanded to the extent that it's getting hard to tell the players without a scorecard. Two students have now put together a guidebook to remedy the situation. Called "The Student's Guide to Environmental Studies: What the Others Don't Tell you About Undergraduate Majors at Cal," the guidebook is an opinionated and often blunt review of the various academic programs. That's the point, says junior Tim Bucknell, since the guide is meant to help students choose the program that's best for them. He and co-author Sarah Ball juxtaposed departmental descriptions of each major with their own take on the program's course offerings. Majors in environmental studies have sprung up in nearly every college in response to a doubling of interested students in the past few years. They range from environmental engineering to an emphasis on the social aspects of environmental science. Because of this great diversity, such a guide is long overdue, says associate professor Christine Rosen in the Haas School of Business, who supervised the students as part of a class project. (Contact: Robert Sanders) Technology in the Classroom Calculus students this fall can trade in their discussion sessions for computer laboratories if they select a new sequence that emphasizes technology in the classroom. The new high-tech calculus courses retain the traditional three hours per week of lecture, ³but will substitute three hours per week in a specially designed computer class laboratory, led by a graduate student instructor, for the traditional discussion sections,² said Calvin Moore, chair of mathematics. ³The computational power of computers will help students visualize the concepts of calculus and see the applications of their mathematical work in real settings. Students will be active learners,² he said. Students will meet in a new computer laboratory designed just for this purpose. The lab was created out of the old Evans Microcomputer Facility renovated this summer with funds from several campus units who wanted to see calculus improved. Apple Computer also contributed. (Contact: Kathleen Scalise) Bringing Home Olympic Gold The Golden Bears became even more golden at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta thanks in part to Jill Savery and Margot Thien who helped the U.S. women's synchronized swim team win Olympic gold. The number of UC Berkeley students or former students who have won Olympic gold medals now totals 80. Overall, students and alumni have netted 122 Olympic medals since the games began 100 years ago. Incoming sophomore Oleg Kosiak shared a bronze medal with members of the Ukranian men's gymnastics team. Five Cal alums netted gold medals. Michele Granger ('93) and Gillian Boxx ('95) were members of the first-place U.S. women's softball team. Swimmer Mark Henderson ('91) won a gold in the 400 medley relay. The first-place U.S. women's soccer team included Mary Harvey ('87) and Joy Biefeld Fawcett ('90). (Contact: Sports Information at (510) 642-5363) New Coaches: Cal's new head football coach is Steve Mariucci, who returns to campus after four successful years coaching the Green Bay Packers. Mariucci was last on campus from 1987-1991, first as Cal's wide receiver and special teams coach and then as offensive coordinator. The 40-year-old Mariucci is credited with creating at Cal one of the most impressive offenses in college football, with a 10-2 record and a national No. 7 ranking in 1991. Marianne Stanley is the new coach of the women's basketball team. Considered one of the most successful coaches in the history of women's basketball, she is a 17-year coaching veteran and winner of five national championship titles as player and coach. Most recently, the 42-year-old Stanley was co-head coach of the 1995-96 Stanford team. (Contact: Sports Information at (510) 642-5363) ###