Politics
In the Wake of the Capitol Riot, A Conversation on Right-Wing Ideology
Lawrence Rosenthal of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies talks fascism, nationalism, and Trumpism.
Blue Walls, Big Windows: A New Generation of Justice-Oriented Spaces
Last June, in the aftermath of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Berkeley joined a handful of cities across the country that began defunding its police, slashing $9.2 million or 12 percent from the police budget. Whether cities like Berkeley will continue on a path towards completely defunding and abolishing the police […]
How to Make Black Lives Matter at Berkeley
Students, staff, and faculty discuss where we are and the way forward.
Letter-Writers Call Confronting Racism in STEM an “Important First Step”
A public letter addresses the false dichotomy of “excellence or diversity.” “The false dichotomy of ‘excellence or diversity’ must end,” four UC Berkeley alumni wrote in a letter published in the journal Science in September. “Diversity results in better, more impactful, and more innovative science,” the letter continued, “and it is essential to building novel […]
Swift Justice: The Historic Fight for Gender Equality at Berkeley Law
ELEANOR SWIFT LEFT THE DEAN’S office at Boalt Hall, walked upstairs, and started packing her things. After a promising legal career and eight years as one of Berkeley School of Law’s most beloved professors, she had just been fired—her tenure denied by her overwhelmingly male peers.
The Election’s Over, But the Battle Is Just Beginning.
The 2020 election is over and, with a significant lead in both the electoral and popular vote, Joe Biden has definitively beaten Donald Trump for the Presidency. That hasn’t stopped Trump, some Republican lawmakers, and many of the 70 million people who voted for him, from claiming that the election was rigged. Indeed, two weeks […]
Election Polls Are Only 60 Percent Accurate, Which Is 0 Percent Surprising.
For many Americans, Donald Trump’s 2016 victory came as a shock, especially considering how much he’d trailed Hillary Clinton in the polls. Even FiveThirtyEight founder and famed pollster Nate Silver got it wrong. But UC Berkeley business professor Don Moore thinks we should cut Silver some slack.
A Young, Local Activist Vies for Office in Berkeley
Aidan Hill is one of four candidates running to be Berkeley’s next mayor, including incumbent and UC Berkeley alum Jesse Arreguín. Hill, 27, is a UC Berkeley senior transfer and re-entry student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in political science. They were raised in Fontana, California and obtained an associate’s degree in communications studies at Riverside […]
The UC System Has Officially Gone Test Optional. What Now?
Inside the University of California’s bold move to reinvent admissions amid a pandemic IN DECEMBER, KAWIKA SMITH, a 17-year-old high school student from Los Angeles, along with fellow students and advocates, sued the UC system. The goal? Completely reinvent the admissions process by jettisoning standardized testing forever. After a whirlwind year of protests, a pandemic, […]
A Historic Vote May Restore Affirmative Action in California
Earlier this year, the UC Regents backed the repeal of Prop 209. In mid-June, the UC Board of Regents held a historic vote, unanimously endorsing a state proposal to repeal Proposition 209, California’s controversial ballot initiative which banned the consideration of race, sex, or ethnicity in public education, employment, and contracting throughout the state. In […]
Shutdowns Hurt. They Also Save Lives.
Despite the economic and job losses, shelter-in-place orders prevented millions of coronavirus cases. What would have happened if large-scale policies like shelter-in-place orders, travel restrictions, and business closures were not implemented early in the COVID-19 pandemic? According to a study from a Berkeley research team published in the journal Nature in June, shutdowns and other […]
Will Distance Learning Make Education Inequality Worse?
Ever since Bay Area school districts announced they would begin the fall 2020 school year with distance learning due to the still-increasing rate of COVID-19 infection across the region, parents have been scrambling to figure out how to manage their children’s schooling. One solution many are considering is “pandemic pods,” small learning groups organized by […]
