The sting of being picked last for kickball can last a lifetime. UC Berkeley professors have pretty good standing in the political kickball arena as it is, and President Obama, a pretty baller team captain if we may say so, just chose another local for the lineup. With Goldman School of Public Policy professor Michael Nacht joining Obama’s administration, our self validation swells and Stanford belittlement grows even easier.

Obama nominated Nacht for the position of Assistant Secretary of Defense, Global Strategic Affairs. Nacht works abreast of some other big names at the public policy school, including Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor, economy bigshot Robert Reich. Nacht will join fellow UC Berkeley professors Christina Romer, Steven Chu, and Thomas Kalil, who serve respectively as economic advisor, secretary of energy, and associate director of the Office of Science and Technology, on the all-star adminsitration. Meanwhile, Stanford’s two “special advisors” wave from the bench.

Image Source: News Center
Obama taps Berkeley scholar for high-level job [SF Chronic]

With the UC Board of Regents threatening to cut enrollment without more funding from the state and a recent phenomenon of beginning sentences with “With the economy as it is … ” it seems that Berkeley thinks it’s finally time to tell us what everybody already knows: the economy is failing, nobody has any money and we’re all screwed. Surprise!

Looming state budget shortfalls, declining endowments and tuition increases, oh my! Sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a symposium will be held this Tuesday to discuss the economic fate of the UC system and do what Berkeley does best: hold open forums for discourse on important controversial topics. Hopefully, though, this one will actually help solve the problem and not just provide a safe space for letting off steam.

In attendance will be Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, Christopher F. Edley, Jr., President of the UC, Mark Yudof and Berkeley Economics teacher and recently-named chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer. It’s gonna take a lot more than a metaphorical Band-Aid in the form of a symposium to heal this financial wound, but hey, it’s a start.

WHAT: Panel of UC and UCB professors and leaders to discuss the future of higher education and it’s current economic uh-oh’s, forum-style.

WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

WHERE: Pauley Ballroom

WHO: People who know stuff. (See above.)

Image Source: Rosemobile under Creative Commons
All-Star Panel of University Leaders to Discuss Future of Public Higher Education [UC Newsroom]