Posted by
Jill Cowan on Sunday, April 13, 2008 01:14 pm
Six Cal profs were among “190 artists, scientists and scholars,” chosen from almost 3,000 applicants (all of whom, we assume, are much smarter than we could ever hope to be), who received 2008 Guggenheim Fellowships. This means that they will get lots of moneys to continue their work on lots of things that smart people work on, like Psych professor Arthur Shimamura’s “examination of a neurocognitive approach to the psychology of art and aesthetics,” and Philosophy professor Paolo Mancosu’s analysis of “the interplay between the philosophy of mathematics and mathematical logic.”
Guggenheim Fellowships, brought to you by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation since 1925, are awarded every year to cool people “who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts,” quite a number of whom are also Nobel Laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners. Plus, we know from experience that if it’s got a Guggenheim’s stamp of approval, it’s got to be pretty darn interesting.
Image Source: Finlay McWalter under GNU Free Documentation
Six Professors Win Prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships [Berkeley News Center]
Guggenheim Fellowship [Wikipedia]
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation [Wikipedia]
Posted by
Danica Li on Sunday, April 13, 2008 03:02 am
She’s the rock star who teaches every class in a pencil skirt and vertiginous heels. Her lectures are so inspiring that she has to request her students withhold their applause at the end of each one. She’s the chair of the undergraduate urban-studies major and the associate dean of academic affairs in the International and Area Studies department. Her name is Ananya Roy, and she’s out to make you care, damnit.
A week ago, delivery interrupted a graduate seminar that Roy was teaching to heap much adulation and apples and purty flowers upon her unsuspecting person. The formal Golden Apple Award ceremony will take place in Dwinelle Hall at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 24, when she’ll deliver her “Ideal Last Lecture” and rack up a couple of grand for being just that awesome.
Roy teaches the wildly popular course, “Global Poverty: Challenges and Hopes in the New Millenium”, every fall semester. Reportedly, the class started out as an eight-week seminar with space for about a couple dozen students. Then it expanded. And expanded. And kept right on expanding. It was like the universe or Google or something. read more »
Posted by
Danica Li on Sunday, April 06, 2008 02:27 pm
After discovering the latest omen of the world’s coming demise, the Clog encourages Berkeley students to put down their books and enjoy their short-lived time on earth. (Or not, in this case.)
A recently declassified 2003 memo authorizing brutal interrogation methods on Guantanamo Bay detainees wouldn’t be news, really, because we’re jaded like that. The catch? The damning signature on the memo belongs to a lawyer cum professor, and that professor teaches law at a school of ultra liberal, Bush-bashing yukkity-yuks: our very own UC Berkeley.
Dubbed by national media as the John Yoo torture memo, the piece argues that the Fifth Amendment’s due process protections and the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruelty fails to apply to Guantanamo Bay prisoners because they’re aliens, damnit. read more »
Posted by
Danica Li on Saturday, March 15, 2008 02:01 pm
Betcha didn’t know this, but Berkeley’s scavenged together a $1.1 billion war chest in an attempt to fend off the greedy paws of Harvard and Yale Universities. What ever for? Well, let’s just say that someone’s gon’ get bitchslapped if they make a grab for Cal’s professors again.
With the state’s deficit crisis on one hand and the filthy rich coffers of private universities on the other, Berkeley’s not in a very good position to compete for top-notch faculty or even keep the ones they’ve got now. We’re still the, quote, “jewel in the crown of public higher education.” But since 2003, we’ve lost at least 30 faculty members to eight main competitors. Leading them? Harvard. No one is surprised.
The extra money will go towards endowing chairs for 100 positions. Most of us can only dream of jobs where “$130,000 a year” means “30% underpaid”, but fingers crossed - these are our professors, after all.
Bloomberg.com: Berkeley Raises $1.1 Billion to Keep Professors From Ivy League [Bloomberg]
Sometimes, professors need concrete proof of students’ appreciation–proof that doesn’t consist of sucking up during office hours in hopes of a glowing letter of recommendation. And so students created the “The Golden Apple Award for Outstanding Teaching,” named so because it historically incites intense jealousy in the community of professors who don’t win the honor.
In 2007, students nominated a total of 54 professors. Five were finalists, and department of history Professor Leon Litwack eventually claimed the honor during his last semester teaching.
The 2008 nomination process is now open and goes until Apr. 6. After choosing the winner, the ASUC, California Alumni Association and Berkeley Hillel go to the professor’s classroom with an undoubtedly welcome surprise of a $2500 award and a symbolic basket of apples.
Want to be a part of the post-nomination selection process? Turn in a resume to participate in choosing the “fairest” professor of them all!
Image Source: Abrahami under Creative Commons
Golden Apple Award [ASUC]
Students adore retiring historian [News Center]
It seems college professors are chomping at the bit to see a Democrat overtake the Oval Office in 2008. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, American professors donated $7 million to presidential campaigns just this year–that’s more than any other industry, even the big drug and oil industries.
Who’s the favorite among the profs? None other than college-student favorite, Barack Obama. He ranks No. 1 with $1.5 million donated in the campaign’s first six months. Hillary Clinton follows him with almost $940,000 collected.
The University of California is one of the top donors, second only to Harvard University. Hell, we even beat Stanford in the dollar race.
From Education Nation, the top colleges (thanks to their professors) stand as follows:
bq. 1. Harvard University
Total: $266,044 81% Democrat / 19% Republican
bq. 2. University of California
Total: $248,488 90% Democrat/ 10% Republican
bq. 3. College of William & Mary
Total: $136,200 99% Democrat / 1% Republican
bq. 4. Columbia University
Total: $114,108 78% Democrat / 22% Republican
bq. 5. Apollo Group
Total: $113,900 90% Democrat / 10% Republican
bq. 6. University of Chicago
Total: $102,880 92% Democrat / 8% Republican
bq. 7. Stanford University
Total: $97,608 89% Democrat / 11% Republican
bq. 8. Georgetown University
Total: $86,917 85% Democrat / 15% Republican
bq. 9. University of Pennsylvania
Total: $80,990 90% Democrat / 10% Republican
bq. 10. Northwestern University
Total: $70,575 82% Democrat / 18% Republican
Does it seem odd to you, too, that professors were able to amass this much? We all know profs don’t earn the highest salaries, at least if they’re in the humanities/not in Haas.
They must be ready for a change–now they’re putting their money where their mouths are.
College Professors for Obama [Education Nation]
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