Politics

Man walks past a for rent sign Road block: Phil Bokovoy, Cal alum and president of Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods. Paul Chinn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Berkeley v. Berkeley

By Dhoha Bareche

In March, the public was stunned to learn that state courts had ordered UC Berkeley to freeze enrollment at 2020–21 levels, meaning that about 2,600 fewer seats would be available to first-year and transfer students for in-person enrollment in the fall. The news came less than a month before admission offers were to be sent to incoming freshmen. 

Syrian children are pictured inside a cave (Anas Alkharboutli/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

The World Has Become Desensitized to Our Pain

By Dhoha Bareche ’23

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, countries around the world have rallied their support for Ukrainians. NATO allies have united like never before, imposing severe economic sanctions on Russia and making Vladimir Putin an international pariah. At the same time, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has become a celebrity in the West. What explains the outpouring of support?

Alexa drawing (Illustration by Christina Dallorso)

First Person

By Alexa Zahlada '23, as told to Anabel Sosa

Back in 2009, I moved from Ukraine to the U.S. to live with my mom, who was studying to become a doctor. Years later, I remember her sitting me down in the car and saying, “I cannot afford to raise you here and I don’t know what to do.”

grandpa and child

Snapp Chats

By Martin Snapp

After graduating from Berkeley Law in 2014, Yoana Tchoukleva, J.D. ’14, served in many roles before she found her dream job: setting up the Restorative Justice Unit of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.

Eric Stover Has Spent a Career Unearthing Atrocities

A human rights researcher investigates genocide. Eric Stover had no professional path when he set out backpacking from Alaska through Central and South America in early spring 1975. At 23, he was inspired by wanderlust. “I wanted to be the next Kerouac, but it didn’t work out that way.” By the end of that 16-months-long trip, […]

Cal alum Robert Cervero running a marathon

What’s Wrong with U.S. Infrastructure?

By Nathalia Alcantara

For a transportation expert, Robert Cervero used to live a surprisingly sedentary lifestyle. Now a long-distance runner with 66 marathons and 112 ultra-marathons under his belt, he's an advocate for run-commuting, and building infrastructure for better transit and urban development.

Abstract illustration

Men Behaving Badly

By Julia M. Klein

Can evolutionary psychology untangle the roots of sexual conflict? IN MARCH, FACING MULTIPLE COMPLAINTS of sexual harassment, New York’s three-term Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, issued an apology. “I never knew at the time that I was making anyone feel uncomfortable,” he said. “I never, ever meant to offend anyone or hurt anyone or cause anyone […]

Cal alumna Elaine Kim seated in front of fireplace in living room

We the People

By Laura Smith

Before Elaine Kim came to Berkeley as a Ph.D. student in 1968, she was used to being the only Asian person in the room. Kim, who is Korean American, was born in New York and raised in a predominantly working class white suburb of Washington, D.C., the daughter of a migrant farmworker mother and waiter-turned-diplomat […]