News Briefs

New vice chancellor for equity and inclusion named

Gibor Basri

Summer 2007 | Gibor Basri, a Berkeley professor of astrophysics with an extensive background working on diversity and outreach issues, has been named to the campus’s new post of vice chancellor for equity and inclusion. The position was created by Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, who said he is “absolutely thrilled” that the 25-year veteran of the Berkeley faculty will assume the role, selected as the result of a national search.

In the new role, Basri will oversee campus efforts to recruit, retain, promote, and provide a welcoming environment for a broad diversity of faculty, students, and staff. There will be an initial concentration on the area of historically excluded ethnic minorities whose current representation is of particular concern. In the coming months, Basri will collaborate with faculty, students, and staff to establish a plan to build on successful existing programs, create new ones, and ensure that clear and measurable goals are met.

“I am very excited to take up this challenge,” said Basri. “My goal is to ensure that we bring the best faculty, students, and staff of all backgrounds to UC Berkeley and provide them with a campus environment in which they can excel and, in turn, help bring UC Berkeley to new levels of excellence.”

Campus is alert to mental-health issues

Colleges and universities all over the U.S. are paying increased attention to students’ mental-health issues. The tragic shootings at Virginia Tech have brought national attention to these efforts, but many places — including Berkeley — were ramping up long before that dreadful day.

At Berkeley, University Health Services’ Suicide Prevention and Depression Awareness Project, through its “Look for the Signs” training program, has taught some 600 faculty, staff, graduate-student instructors, resident advisers, and peer counselors across campus to look for the warning signs of depression, such as increased anxiety or irritability, a feeling of worthlessness or hopelessness, increased fatigue or lack of energy, or social withdrawal. Those who complete the training put lime-green stickers reading “I look for the signs: I can help” on their office doors and windows.

“We all experience times in our life when things are rough, and we don’t know how to solve our problems,” says Peggy Yang, director of the training project. “Having people on campus who are trained to look for the warning signs that someone is in distress is important, because they can reach out to students before students lose hope.”

Screenings for depression and other illnesses are available at www.uhs.berkeley.edu/onlinescreenings. For assessment, counseling, medication, and emergencies, students can contact Counseling and Psychological Services at 510/642-9494.

Cal Dining on the red carpet

Cal Dining brings award-winning cuisine to hungry students.

The food industry’s equivalent of the Oscar is the Ivy Award, presented by the trade publication Restaurants & Institutions. This year an Ivy for institutional food service went to Berkeley’s Cal Dining, recognizing the major transformation it has undergone since 2004.

That year, Berkeley’s largest dining commons, Crossroads, became the first facility of its kind to be certified as a Bay Area Green Business by Alameda County. Last year Cal Dining introduced certified-organic salad bars in all four of its dining halls. And just last semester, Café 3, the newly renovated dining area in the Unit 3 residence-hall complex, rolled out an all-you-can-eat sushi bar, all-organic salad bar, pho station, and five hip new seating areas for its diners.

Summit sets ambitious sustainability goal

UC Berkeley’s fourth annual “sustainability summit” — recognizing those who make substantial environmental contributions to the campus — was highlighted this spring by Chancellor Birgeneau’s announcement that the campus is committed to reducing its greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2014 — six years earlier than the target set by California Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act.

A goal for UC’s 10 campuses is to make all of them carbon-neutral — an objective that the Berkeley campus can meet by increasing energy efficiency and conservation, according to a feasibility study announced at last year’s summit. Proposed emission-reduction projects include implementing energy-saving computer settings, retrofitting bathrooms to better conserve water, installing more efficient lighting, and improving the campus’s steam-heating plant.

Steps to encourage individuals to conserve energy on campus include expanding the number of the campus’s electric vehicles, introducing a fleet of shared campus bicycles, encouraging a department-level energy-reduction effort, and increasing the use of video-conferencing rooms.

For more information, visit sustainability.berkeley.edu.

Campus events, sports set for fall

Coach Tedford and his Golden Bears start the football season on Sept. 1 against Tennessee. (Michael J.Burns photo)

Planning a visit to Berkeley this fall? It’s probably the most vibrant time of year here, with so much going on that even longtime residents have their hands full keeping up.

Two online resources make it simpler to plan your days and evenings out. For sports fans, calbears.com, the website of the California Golden Bears, has schedules for all 27 men’s and women’s intercollegiate sports, online ticket ordering, photos, and multimedia galore — all the sports news you can, um, Bear.

If your tastes run more toward the academic than the athletic, try events.berkeley.edu, the online listing of all campus events. Information about museum exhibits, films and concerts, public symposia and lectures, Cal Performances events, and all the activities that make Berkeley a bubbling hub of intellect and expression is posted weeks or even months in advance. Sort results by type of event or date, or check “Critic’s Choice” for a selection of the most intriguing upcoming events.

Safe and sober partygoing

University Health Services offers an array of programs to promote a safe and healthy community, and two specifically aim at curbing alcohol abuse. Every incoming student is required to take a two-part online alcohol-awareness tutorial at alcoholedu.berkeley.edu. (Parents are welcome to see an overview at the site and take the tutorial themselves.) In addition, the PartySafe@Cal campaign offers year-round information about risk management strategies for preventing alcohol problems; details are at PartySafe.berkeley.edu.

Parents can use the information from both programs to discuss drinking with their student. Students should also know that prevention and intervention services are available to them through University Health Services at 510/642-7202 or uhs.berkeley.edu.

Opt out of health insurance until Sept. 14

All Berkeley students are automatically enrolled in the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) at a cost of $610 per semester for undergraduates. However, those with comparable major-medical coverage can choose to waive enrollment. The initial deadline for opting out of the plan was in July; if you missed it and want to waive enrollment, you can still do so by Sept. 14 for a service fee of $50. For details, visit www.uhs.berkeley.edu/students/insurance/waiver/welcome.shtml.