Some graduates decorate their caps to spell out their sororities’ names. Other people, like Roland Saekow, create a green residential lot on theirs.

Complete with grass paper (astroturf probably causes global warming or something), a solar panel, a wind turbine, a small house and a mechanical rising sun, Roland’s hat made  statement. You, too, can have a green cap. What for? Don’t be silly.

Though normally we’d be jerks and point out that you don’t actually have to power your cap in the first place—let alone construct a sustainable way to do so—we won’t do that today. Instead, hats off to Roland, who showed us how graduation gear no longer has to depend on pollutants like petroleum any more. Oil kills!

Green Graduation Cap, solar and wind power [YouTube]
Green Graduation Cap [AP Community]

You may have been too stressed out of your mind to notice that, while you were stalking angrily to your finals on Thursday and Friday, you were ruining family photos on Upper Sproul Plaza or in front of the Campanile. Yes, there is a reason for the sudden rash of people taking cheesy pictures … and that reason is graduation season.

That means a lot of people walking around in caps and gowns, stopping in front of every building on campus, capturing their final Berkeley memories. It also means sometimes-semi-interesting commencement speakers. Some of these commencement speeches look pretty crash-able, especially the outdoor ones, so even if you don’t know anybody in the major, you might be able to catch some words of wisdom.

Image Source: m00by under Creative Commons
Graduation ceremony season starts Thursday, May 14 [NewsCenter]

This decision entirely discounting his years of teaching physics and biology here at Berkeley? We won’t pretend we’re not a tad disappointed. But hey, it’s a feeling we’re quite accustomed to by now.

Image Source: Center For American Progress Action under Creative Commons
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu to Speak At Caltech Commencement [Pasadena Now]

Prolonging your grad date might not work either, if that’s what you’re thinking. Seniors, you’re screwed. Juniors, you’re probably screwed too. We hope you plan on getting a Ph.D. in something useful.

Meanwhile, we’re in a nursing shortage. Hint hint.

Or, if you want to denounce your materialistic lifestyle and you’re into that whole hippie thing, there’s always wwoofing.

Image Source: left-hand under Creative Commons, edited by Christine Borden
Congrats, graduate – good luck finding a job [SF Chron]

NewsCenter reports that Newmark will emphasize three main points in his speech:

1. Follow in my footsteps: “Never read a prepared speech unless you’re good at it.”

2. Wanna know corporate life? (No.) Read Dilbert.

3. When in doubt, quote Shakespeare: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

We’d also like to add a No. 4: Never use craigslist casual encounters when drunk.

The event begins at 4 p.m. at the Greek Theatre. Congratulations to all those graduating!

Image Source: Andrew Feinberg under Creative Commons
Craiglist founder to give commencement speech [NewsCenter]

In addition to department graduation ceremonies, a few other groups on campus also hold their own get-togethers for proud graduates. It’s a great way to graduate with a community of people (rather than the curve-setting peers you’ve been battling against all four years). Plus there’s usually free food, and the Clog certainly can’t argue with that.

Lavender Graduation
For: LGBTIQ graduating seniors, graduate students and allies.
When: Friday, May 9 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Alumni House
Keynote Speaker: Christopher Daley, JD, Class of 2001. Founding Executive Director of the Transgender Law Center.
Dress: informal–no academic regalia

Co-op Graduation
For: co-opers and friends. “Everyone is welcome.”
When: Wednesday, May 14 from 9 to 11:30 p.m.
Where: Alumni House
Includes: free food, games, contests and prizes

Know of any others? Leave a link or some info in the comments, and the Clog’ll find a way to finagle its way into a free meal and merry celebration.

Image Source: CarbonNYC under Creative Commons
Lavender Graduation [GenEq]
Co-op Graduation [USCA]
2008 Department Commencement Ceremonies [UC Berkeley]

What does that entail? Well, the Berkeley News Center headed to the Grad Fair to find out “What’s left to do and what’s after Cal?” And for most people they talked to, the answer was school, school, some work, and more school. The majority of students surveyed said they were going to grad school, and saw finals as their last hurdle before they graduate and move on–to a masters. Way to stave off the headfirst plunge into that adult version of Never Neverland, “the real world,” for just a few more years, Seniors.

We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, and lots more dollars (and a better economy) for every extra diploma you earn. No, but seriously, we do.

Point of View: Seniors on their Last Weeks at Cal [Berkeley News Center]

But thanks to the Senior Class Council, we can’t avoid that pain forever! Yes, the council will host a myriad of events all this week to make it easier for disorganized seniors to get it together and hopefully bond with the other thousands of graduates who will clog up the Greek Theater come May 13.

Seniors, have your credit card ready–pick up commencement tickets (Craigslist will speak!), caps, gowns and a senior sweatshirt at your friendly neighborhood Grad Fair vendor on Lower Sproul Plaza.

Other notable events include:

- The Golden Apple Award lecture by Professor Ananya Roy
- A nostalgia-tinged movie on Memorial Glade
- A Giants vs. Padres baseball game
- Painting the Big C

A $30 Senior Week ticket gets you access to most of the events that involve food.

There was supposed to be a boat dance, too, but the council canceled it–much to the dismay of many people who expressed their disappointment on the senior class Facebook wall. A little birdie tells us there were multiple reasons for this, including cost and the fact that the Senior Class Council would only be able to book the Red and White Fleet. Cal students simply hate dancing on cardinal-crimson vessels.

In any case, the Clog wishes all seniors a happy Senior Week full of “unity and spirit.”

Image Source: Gideon Tsang under Creative Commons
seniors.berkeley.edu [Website]
UC Berkeley Class of 2008 [Facebook]

We just want to say one word to you: plastics.

Yeah, maybe in 1967.

US News and World Report released a report on the best careers for those carrying a bachelor’s degree. And English majors won’t be living in cardboard boxes after all.

The top highest-paying careers are as follows:

bq. 1. Management Consultant – $96,245 – Bachelor’s in Business

bq. 2. Fund Raiser – $78,902 – Bachelor’s in Business

bq. 3. Actuary – $75,062 – Bachelor’s in Accounting

bq. 4. Engineer – $72,156 – Bachelor’s in Engineering

bq. 5. Systems Analyst – $70,438 – Bachelor’s in Computer Science

bq. 6. School Psychologist – $63,029 – Bachelor’s in Psychology

bq. 7. Registered Nurse – $59,046 – Bachelor’s in Nursing

bq. 8. Editor – $52,443 – Bachelor’s in English

bq. 9. Landscape Architect – $49,974 – Bachelor’s in Architecture

Of course, you can earn more being, say, a doctor or a lawyer. But those careers involve more than a bachelor’s. One would hope.

But if you’re pretty much done with school effing you over, that there list is your guide to the top-dollar life of a college grad.

Yeah, only if you could get into Haas.

Best Careers 2007 [US News and World Report]
Highest Paying Jobs for Bachelor’s Degree Grads [Education Nation]

Today, the Daily Cal presents its Graduation Issue, chock-full of various Danny Glover jabs, including the illustration pictured at the right. The Clog brings you the featured articles along with our top picks. In case, you know, you don’t want to read any more about rhotacism, metathesis and allomorphy. Whatever that means. We’re supposed to know this crap by now.

* Graduation: Choose Your Own Speaker – Thank God the Californians didn’t try to get Bono as the speaker.
* Four-Course Meal, Four-Week Wait – We’re wary of any restaurant that willingly describes itself as “slamming.”
* The Ins and Outs of Graduating Abroad – At least there’s no picket line at your graduation.

Top Picks:
* Putting the Lover Back in Glover – This deserves a slow clap itself.
* Continuing College: The Doctor Pepper Method – But which is better: a Diet Dr. Pepper or a mint julep? We may never know.