2022 Fall Archives - Cal Alumni Association

Where Do We Stand on Title IX?

By Margie Cullen

Women’s sports have come a long way, but 52 years on, inequities persist.

_{AP Photo/Jae C. Hong}

Editor’s Note from the Fall Issue of California Magazine

By Laura Smith

I don’t know about you, but I’m growing weary of living in unprecedented times. Here I’m talking about our most recent national schism: the fall of Roe.

_{Illustration by Ryan Johnson}

40 Years Later, Officials Reflect on the Most Outrageous Football Finish

By James Rainey

The pounding on the door sent a shudder through the tiny locker room.

_{Laxmi, 2018}

What Does the Post-Roe Future Look Like?

By Laura Smith

On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, reversing 49 years of constitutional protection for abortion.

Our Editors’ Picks for Your Fall Reading and Viewing

New Yorker documentaries, Art and Race Matters, and more.

A Tour Through the Past 125 Years of California Magazine

By Pat Joseph

In the May 1942 edition of California Monthly, under the heading “Reader Comment,” ran a note from one Frank Pryor Jr. ’39, second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps, asking for a change of address.

_{Soil engineering: Dr. Jill Banfield and crew analyzing microbes in California rice fields. (Andy Murdock, Innovative Genomics Institute)}

What If We “Supercharged” Plants to Stop Climate Change?

By Margie Cullen

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has cited carbon dioxide removal as essential to limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the Paris Agreement’s climate target.

Shot of a young woman looking tired while studying in a college library in the library

_{iStock.com/peopleimages}

Tackling the Teen Sleep Crisis

By Laura Smith

Five questions with Lisa L. Lewis '89, Author of The Sleep-Deprived Teen

_{Base art iStock}

Think your ideas are your own? Think again.

By Meher Bhatia

While most of us like to think we come by our beliefs independently, new research out of Berkeley suggests otherwise.

_{Lit: Diana Almendariz, of the Maidu-Wintun-Hoopa-Yurok tribes, sets fire to a redbud pile during a cultural burn in 2020. (Alysha Beck, UC Davis)}

Indigenous Californians Long Prevented Forest Fires with Controlled Burning. Now We’re Learning from Them.

By Maia Nehme

Only we can prevent forest fires. That’s what Smokey Bear always said, his trusty shovel ready to snuff out burning embers. New Berkeley research suggests that, counterintuitively, setting small, purposeful fires can actually minimize the risk of major wildfires.

_{Adrift: NASA illustration of a black hole floating through the Milky Way galaxy. (NASA, FECYT, IAC)}

Berkeley Astronomers Detect the First Known Free-Floating Black Hole

By Meher Bhatia

Berkeley astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope, have detected what may be the very first “free-floating” black hole ever recorded, about 2,200 to 6,200 light-years from Earth. Dubbed “stellar ghosts,” these black holes are invisible, left behind after a massive star—at least 10 times the mass of the sun—dies and collapses in on itself.

_{Screen shot from video by Roxanne Makasdjian/Christian Brown}

These Salamanders Skydive Sixty Feet and Live to Tell the Tale

By Krissy Waite

You’ve heard of flying squirrels, but what about flying salamanders?

_{Illustration by Stephanie Singleton}

“I am a minimally speaking autistic person who was not expected to go to college.” Now he’s getting his PhD

By Hari Srinivasan ’22 as told to Laura Smith

I was not expected to go to college.

_{Illustrations by Patrick Welsh}

Our List of Women Who Rock

By Pat Joseph

Marié Digby, who studied philosophy at Cal in the mid-2000s, scored a viral hit on YouTube with her cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” which she plays solo on acoustic guitar while sitting on the floor of her living room. It currently has more than 22 million views. It wasn’t pure chance; by the time she released […]

Crowds of people walking through Sather Gate

_{Big tent: Cal’s enrollment keeps growing. (PEG SKORPINSKI)}

Can equity in higher education be counterproductive?

By Dhoha Bareche

Since its founding in 1868, the University of California has been committed to making higher education accessible to everyone.

_{Twainiana: Bob Hirst’s office in the Bancroft Library is a perpetual jumble of stacked books and papers. (Jami Smith for the UC Berkeley) Library}

Was Mark Twain an Antiracist?

By Pat Joseph

Since 1949, the Mark Twain Papers (now the Mark Twain Papers and Project) have resided at the Bancroft Library, and for more than four decades, Robert Hirst, M.A. ’65, Ph.D. ’76, has presided over them as general editor and curator.

_{New homes: View of proposed supportive housing and dorms from People’s Park Glade. (LMS ARCHITECTS/HOOD DESIGN STUDIO)}

The Chancellor’s Letter from the Fall Issue of California Magazine

By Chancellor Carol T. Christ

Our university is relentlessly dynamic, constantly evolving to meet students’ interests, keep pace with the expanding depth and breadth of knowledge, and support an ambitious and entrepreneurial research enterprise.

_{Photo by MARCUS HANSCHEN}

The News is Different Depending on Who’s Telling the Story

By Laura Smith

Since 2006, the front pages of newspapers from around the world have been blown up and displayed outside Moffitt Library and the adjacent Free Speech Movement Café.