2022 Summer Archives - Cal Alumni Association

_{(COURTESY OF TAMARA KEITH)}

A White House Correspondent, A Vet, and Cal’s Mic Men

By Martin Snapp

Columnist Martin Snapp shares alumni’s stories.

_{Carleton E. Watkins, UC Berkeley Bancroft Library}

This Land is Their Land

By Hayden Royster

To Phenocia Bauerle, the words “land-grant college” carry a particular weight. A member of the Apsáalooke tribe, she grew up in Montana, a state where, as she puts it, “it’s understood what a land-grant institution means: It means Native land was taken.”

Filippenko and a crowd looking at the sky

_{(Kelley L Cox- KLC fotos)}

Look Up

By Pat Joseph

Ask an astronomer and they’ll tell you we’re living in a kind of golden age.

_{Courtesy of the Science History Institute}

The Man Who Loved DDT

By Elena Conis

Berkeley biochemist Tom Jukes was an ardent conservationist and life member of the Sierra Club, but he just didn’t get 1960s environmentalism. The thing that bugged him most about the movement was its “emotional binge” against the pesticide DDT.

_{Photo by Dexter Hake}

Into the Ishi Wilderness

By Laura Smith

More than 100 years later, Berkeley is still grappling with Kroeber’s and Ishi’s legacies.

Two little monkeys play in the forest of North Bengal. One hangs upside down while the other appears to launch him into space with covered eyes.

_{(iStock.com/Mukul Shilpa Gupta)}

Animals Drink Alcohol Too

By Margie Cullen

Humans have many things in common with monkeys: large brains, hands that can grasp objects, complex social groups. A new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science confirms another commonality: a taste for alcohol.

Everything You Need to Know About Ukraine

By Dhoha Bareche

A discussion on the conflict in Ukraine.

_{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.

Berkeley Loses the CRISPR War

By Meher Bhatia

In February, Berkeley was dealt a major legal blow over one of the most promising technologies to come out of the university. The tribunal of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ruled that the rights for CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing in human and plant cells belong to the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, not to Berkeley, potentially ending a years-long battle between the academic institutions.

_{(iStock.com/Searsie)}

Mooooove Over, Meat

By Krissy Waite

Giving up hamburgers and ice cream in the next 15 years could save us from global climate catastrophe.

_{(NISARGMEDIA/Alamy Stock Photo)}

Beware Second Hand Bong Smoke

By Krissy Waite

Most people today recognize the health risks of inhaling tobacco smoke, even secondhand. Fewer are aware of the dangers of cannabis smoke.

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?

_{(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.”

Top view of broken pencil, crumpled white piece of paper on the green surface.Empty space.Concept of worried and not able to make a decision

_{(stock.com/Viktoriia Oleinichenko)}

Editor’s Note

By Pat Joseph

Generally speaking, we like things to be black and white. Give us heroes and villains, saints and sinners, good versus bad, and we’re happy. Give us grays—moral ambiguity, countervailing facts, good and bad swirled together—and the result is what psychologists call cognitive dissonance. We don’t like it.

Phenocia Bauerle, director of Native American student development at Berkeley and a member of the Apsáalooke tribe.

_{Irene Yi/2022 UC regents}

Chancellor’s Letter

By Chancellor Carol T. Christ

Last February, I was grateful to be present when a beautiful, sacred basket was finally returned to the people of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians. The basket had been, for many years, held by the Hearst Museum, one item among thousands that await repatriation to their rightful owners. It was a deeply moving occasion, another step toward building better relationships between our university and Native American tribes. Yet, we still have much work to do to repair the damage done, and to facilitate the sort of reconciliation that is incumbent upon Berkeley as an institution built by the people, for all the people.

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.