A Bloggable Soup

Well, the LHC turned on and I essentially disappeared into a hole of data analysis.  It was everything a girl dreamed it would be, but I was only able to emerge a couple of times to participate in quotidian activities.  On one of those brief occasions this soup was born.  It's simple, healthy and tasty.  I don't like split peas too much because I think they taste chalky but we had a bag in the pantry and I felt obligated to use them.  Some vegetables, some yogurt and a food processor later I had a pretty good soup on my hands.  By blending the peas with yogurt the chalkiness largely disappeared and it was replaced with a creamy tang.  It also freezes well so you can make a big pot and save some for later.

Split Pea Soup

makes about 6 servings

1 large onion
2 carrots
3 celery ribs
1.5 cups of dried split peas (i used yellow)
6 cups of vegetable broth (approximately, you might need more)
2 Tbsp dried cumin
1-2 tsp smoked hot paprika, chili powder or spice of your choice
salt and pepper to taste
juice of 1 to 1/2 lemon

2/3 cup of flavorful plain yogurt, like Brown Cow.

Dice the onions, carrots and celery into small pieces.  Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot and add the onions.  Saute for a few minutes and then add the carrots and celery.  Continue to saute until the onions are translucent and the carrots and celery are soft.  Add the cumin and stir a bit, then add the split peas and the broth.  Simmer, partially covered, until peas are soft, about 45 min.  You might need to add some more broth or water at some point. Stir in the chili powder and salt and pepper to taste.  Squeeze in a half a lemon or maybe a full lemon if you are using Meyer lemons.  Puree until smooth in batches then blend in the yogurt.  If you are going to freeze some of it, divide the yogurt and don't add it to the to be frozen part until you reheat it.  You can serve with a drizzle of olive oil and some fresh pepper!

Too Cool To Not Post Right Away

Via Symmetry Mag: A Hubble Advent Calendar!

Bloat Much?

The above graph plots the number of senior administrators and the number of faculty members in the UC from 1997 to the present.  From 1993 (not shown on the graph) until now the ratio of faculty members to senior managers had dropped from 2.5:1 to nearly 1:1.  Over that same period of time student fees have increased by nearly 300%.  Those data are from the UCOP, compiled in this article on the Keep California's Promise website.  More detailed studies are available on Charles Schwartz's website: Financing the University 12, 13, and 14.  There was an interesting comment posted in response to the KCP article:

I’m sure that either new hires or reclassification is justified (using the word loosely) on growth of units. Cyril Northcote Parkinson, in his 1955 Economist article entitled Parkinson’s Law, stated two axioms:
1. An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals.
2. Officials make work for each other.
Parkinson also said “[I]n any public administrative department not actually at war a staff increase may be expected to follow the formula x = (2k^m + p)/n, and that this would invariably yield an annual growth rate between 5.17% and 6.56%.” That fits pretty well with UC management growth, and is in accordance with those two axioms.

I think the UCOP has some explaining to do.  Luckily, the UC Commission on the Future is coming to Berkeley on Thursday and soliciting comments from the public.  If no one else brings it up, I will.  The commission website asks for public input so I sent them the following:

As the working group on the size and shape of the UC system considers what UC will look like in the future, I would like them to pay special attention to the explosion of senior management positions in the past 20 years.  In the same time period that the educational fees have gone up by 300% the faculty to senior administrator ratio has decreased from 2.5 to 1 to nearly 1 to 1.  This is well documented, see most recently: http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/?p=469

It is impossible to believe that UC needs one senior administrator per faculty member, especially considering the fact that the average senior administrator pay is higher than that of the average faculty member.  The Commission must account for all of these administrators and justify their necessity to the well being of the university if they are to have a place in the future of UC.

LHC Photos

Here are some neat photos of the LHC, courtesy of the Boston Globe! 

LHC Collisions

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that ATLAS recorded its first collisions ever Monday (or was it Sunday?).  It's super awesome, and it has been blogged about on many sites, for example US LHC Blogs and Cosmic Variance.  I'm running over the data right now as I'm waiting for my 2am meeting.  Cool.

Police Violence at UC Berkeley

I was out of town starting Friday morning for a beautiful wedding and visit with friends and family.  While I was gone a building on campus was occupied by some students (they sneaked in at night and chained the doors shut), a common tactic in student protests.  A crowd of students gathered around the building to support the occupiers, UC administration decided to call in outside police help, and things got crazy.  Below is a video of unprovoked police violence against students.  It's crazy and scary and not what I thought my university is about.  I have been upset with how the administration handled it.  Birgeneau is not showing the support for the students that I believed he had in him.  At first they said that the police handled themselves admirably but once the first person accounts and videos hit the internet they recanted and said they would call for an investigation.  It's appalling. 



Here is a list of videos and links, I haven't watched/read them all:

Best compilation website: http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/

Faculty letter to Birgeneau: http://www.paulnadal.com/doc/open_letter_to_birgeneau.html

Yaman Salahi, "Chancellor Birgeneau must be held accountable for violence against students" [letter]

KTVU 11/20, "Police Arrest Occupiers Of Wheeler Hall; 41 Arrested" with footage of police brutality [article + video]

YouTube Videos:-Student knocked/pulled over by cops, guns pointed at students [video]

- Police hitting students with batons at front side of Wheeler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOI5l2_RghQ&feature=player_embedded#

Videos of Police Brutality

UC Berkeley Protests at Wheeler Hall Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6q0ebKT-QU

UC Berkeley Protests at Wheeler Hall Part 2 - Cops Attacking Students
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1PuiY4Go8Y

Student protests at UCLA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm7XFOlyKLk&feature=related

UCLA Students Mased in the Face as UC Regents Run!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM4sl7WZkcw

UCLA students protest for taser incident- part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lturHqxVjH0

Students at UCLA protest a plan that would boost student fees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZlxQSGBgqU

UCB female student roughed up by police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EJtbp1i1Q8

Video of Police Brutality at UCB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOI5l2_RghQ

Strong Images of Police Brutality
http://www.ktvu.com/news/21674608/detail.html

Violence on the east side of Wheeler:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFY6R4BOvBs&feature=player_embedded

Update and Photos

Police aiming pellet guns at protesters at UCLA

Well, the Regents approved the fee hike, unsurprisingly.  It won't be made official until today, but the increase is all but certain.  Events at UCLA got a bit crazy and they are continuing.  

The Daily Cal has a nice slide show of photos from yesterday's events.  It was pretty tame but the rally featured some really good speakers and all were 'on message' which was not the case on the Sept. 24th protest.  I'll write more about my personal experience with it soon. 


The Daily Bruin, UCLA's paper, has been providing awesome coverage, including a live stream from the regents meeting.  They have a disturbing slide show of the police presence at the campus. 

Strike Schedule of Events and Supporting The Movement Without Striking

Here is a letter I sent out to physics grad students about what they can do for the strike:

Hi Grads,

I've attached the schedule of events for the next three days.  Wednesday is a day of protests, most importantly a large rally on the steps of Sproul plaza at 12.  Thursday aims to turn the campus into an Open University for a day by having free lectures, and by faculty and GSIs leaving their classroom doors open to anyone who wants to come in and learn.  Friday events have yet to be completely determined.

What can you do if you don't want to strike but still want to support the movement?

For Everyone:
1. Attend the rally at 12 on Wednesday
2. Attend some of the other scheduled events
3. Sign the petition requesting the Regents postpone voting on fee increases until they have explored other options: http://saveuc.org/petition_fees.php

For GSIs:
1. Let your students know that they are free to strike and will not suffer repercussions
2. Take a few minutes in class to talk about the issues facing the University
3. On Thursday leave your classroom doors open so that anyone who wants to participate can join you

For GSRs:
1.  Talk to your lab mates about the strike and inform them of the issues facing the university

Also, everyone should urge the state to increase funding to public education.  You can sign the following petitions:

http://checkingeducation.com/petition
http://www.ucforcalifornia.org/cal/home/

You can also talk to your family and friends at home and ask them to contact their representatives to let them know they support public education.

The pressure the students, faculty and staff are putting on the UC Office of the President seems to be working.  Since the September walkout they have greatly increased their efforts to convince Sacramento to reinvest in higher education.  Let's keep the pressure on and let them know that we want the University of a California to stay a public university!

Resources:

http://ucstrike.com/links.php
http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/
http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/
http://people.ucsc.edu/~bmalone/Teaching.html

Schedule:

Strike Schedule

Why I'm Striking

Education is a public good not a private privilege.

The above statement is the heart of my reason for participating in the system wide student strike on November 18th-20th.  The UC regents are voting on a 32% fee increase on the 19th, a move that would balance the budget on the backs of the students, and the strike is direct action against the possible hike.  Everyone knows that the state is in the worst budget crisis in recent memory, and that the UC system has never been in a worse financial system.  We all know and accept that.  However, the response of the current administration (i.e. Mark Yudof and the UC Regents) to the crisis is unacceptable.  They have not demonstrated that there are no alternatives to fee increases.  In fact, they have considered no alternatives, part of the impetus behind this petition from a faculty group at Berkeley, which you should sign.  A UC Berkeley emeritus physics professor has spent several years studying the UC budget and has made some very troubling, and apparently factual, accusations of mismanagement and misdirection by UC officials.  And he is not the only one making these statements.

The heart of the problem, however, is the fact that the stewards of the UC system, Mark Yudof and Co., believe whole-heartedly in the privatization of public education.  Yudof believes it now, and he believed it when he was President of the University of Minnesota.  He thinks it's ok because, "The private return on investment in higher education to each individual, then, has risen significantly."   Private return on investment.  Private privilege.  That is not UC Berkeley.  It is not the university which contributes, by far,  more to the public good than any other school in the nation.  It is not the University which educates more Pell Grant students than all the Ivy League schools combined, 70% of who's undergraduates have parents where not born in the US, and which sends more undergraduates to PhD programs than any single other university in the country.  Look at those demographics and statistics.  I guarantee you will not find them at any other top university in the country, not even at the other top public universities, such as the University of Michigan, which embodies Mark Yudof's dream of a public/private hybrid but is public in name only.  My brother, a University of Michigan out of state undergraduate, told me 60% of its students' families make more than 100k a year.  Do you think that is representative of Michigan? 

The importance of public education, the reality of education as a public good, is well known.  Consider the findings of this study: "With some key caveats, public universities are generally much more accessible to low-income students—despite the claims of private institutions that they effectively provide generous discounts in tuition rates and financial aid."   Those key caveats? "The case of the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Virginia (with only 12, 11, and 8 percent, respectively, of their students with Pell Grants) have initiated efforts at privatization that includes enrolling largely wealthy out-of-state students to bring in more tuition income."  Those three universities make up most of the top public universities outside of California.  The study authors, a Berkeley professor and a Berkeley administrator, conclude that "public institutions will remain the primary entry point for middle- and lower-income students".  If the UC system moves to a hybrid public/private model, it could signal the death of high quality public education in the US. 

Of course, there can be no public institutions without the support of the public, which is why the larger budget crisis of public education in California cannot be solved without a concerted effort to make the public case that education is important and benefits all Californians.  You need only to invoke the explosion in growth the nation experienced in the wake of the GI bill and WWII and California specifically witnessed after the implementation of the Master Plan for Higher Education* to show that public education really does benefit the state.  Convincing the public is a parallel goal to the efforts of this coming week's actions; they are not at all at cross purposes.  However, without the belief of the leadership of the UC system it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to make the argument. 

I'll conclude with the statement that public institutions are the engine for social change and economic mobility.  At one time the University of California embodied that ideal.  I'm striking to try to bring it back.

* I find it amusing and telling that the website about the Master Plan, administered by the UCOP,  is a crappy html page which hasn't been updated since 2005.  Contrast it to the main page of the UCOP, Yudof's page or the Regent's page and you'll catch a glimpse of the leadership's priorities.

**What can you do?  
1.  Sign this petition if you are reading this post before November 19th. 
2.  Sign these petitions 
3.  If you are California voter, go to your representative's home office and tell him or her in person that education is a priority.

Beam and Beets

CMS Beam Splash Event

By now CMS has recorded well over 1000 beam splash events as the LHC prepares to run again.  Beam splash is a term for the spray of particles produced when the LHC smashes a beam of protons into a block of material just upstream of the detector.  The collision of the protons and the material produces a shower of new particles which make their way into the detector and deposit a lot of energy , as shown above.  We are just days away from circulating beams so the LHC is testing the machine, running beams of protons from point to point in the accelerator, one little step at a time.  ATLAS is the last detector to see the beam splash since we are just before the point where the protons are injected into the LHC which you can see in the picture below.  We expect single beams circulating in the LHC in a week or so and the first collisions, albeit at very low energy, by the end of the month.

As you can see, ATLAS is in the middle of the two injection points.

The return of protons to the LHC ring is an unavoidable sign that I will soon be leaving Berkeley.  I plan to move to CERN at the end of January for a period of 6 to 9 months (if it's longer then things aren't going well).  As you can imagine, the move provokes both excitement and anxiety,  and honestly, anxiety is winning out because I don't like moving.  I moved many times while I was young, following my dad's experiments, and while it didn't bother me at the time, it seems I've developed a strong aversion to resettling.  Well, the fact that moving involves leaving Berkeley probably has something to do with it.

One my moving related neuroses is the fate of all the dried goods in my pantry and the hordes of god-knows-what in my freezer.  Kyle is afraid of cooking and I don't think my friends want the bags upon bags of french lentils and kamut flakes I have lying around.  So I've been trying to use up some of the forgotten items when I can, which brings me to the recipes I want to share today. 

A beautiful pink small pink beet from one of our previous CSA shipments

A bunch of three enormous beets, still attached to their greens, came in our CSA box this week.  One of my favorite dishes to make with the small golden or pink beets is pasta tossed with roasted beets, the sauteed beet greens and goat cheese.  I planned to make it again, but as I was trying to decide which pasta to use I remembered that I had a couple nearly finished boxes of lasagna noodles I wanted to use and so the following beet lasagna was born.  It is actually pretty healthy as there isn't too much cheese and the sauce is made from 1% milk, not cream.  The beets are nutritious, delicious and meaty and their greens have a lovely flavor and texture. 

Dessert First!

 

We also received quite a few persimmons in our box, so I decided to make a tart with them and the sheet of puff pastry which had spent an indeterminate amount of time in the corner of my freezer.  I basically tossed the sliced fruit with some sugar and lemon juice, then arranged it on the puff pastry and baked it for about 40 min, et voilà, dessert.  There were some gorgeous organic strawberries from a local farm at the market, which was very strange considering how long ago strawberry season past, but I bought them anyways and topped the persimmons with a strawberry compote. 

Lasagna with Beets, Greens and Goat Cheese

Lemon Bechamel
3 cups milk
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup finely diced onions
5.5 Tbsp butter
5.5 Tbsp flour
2 meyer lemons (or 1 regular lemon)
salt
pepper

3 large beets with greens
The dark red traditional beets bleed all over whatever you put them with, so I try to avoid using them when I can.  They taste fine, however.  Also, you could use any greens if you can't find beets with them still attached. 

3 garlic cloves, minced
diced onion  (whatever is left over from the onion you used for the bechamel)
1-2 pinches of red pepper

5 oz goat cheese
salt, pepper and olive oil as necessary

Wrap each beet, unskinned and greens removed, in foil and put in the oven at 400F.  If they were ginormous like mine, they will take at least an hour to cook all the way through.  If they are small they will only take about 30 min.  When they are ready they will be soft to the touch and the skin will slough off easily. 

To make the bechamel: heat the milk with a 1/2 cup of diced onion and a bay leaf in a sauce pan until it is just about to boil, then remove it from the heat and let it steep for 15 minutes.  Melt the butter over medium heat then add the flour, stirring vigorously for 2 minutes.  Pour the milk into the pan through a strainer and whisk (with a whisk) until it thickness, a minute or two.  Continue to stir it until it boils then put it in a double boiler over low heat and cook for 25 or 30 min, stirring occasionally.  Lastly stir in the lemon juice and add salt and pepper to taste.

Prepare the greens by removing their stems and roughly chopping the leaves.  You can either steam the leaves or saute them.  Chop the stems into 1 in pieces.

Heat some olive oil in a skillet with a pinch or two of red pepper flakes then add the garlic and onion and cook for a few minutes, then add the stems of the beet greens and saute until the onions are translucent and the stems are soft.  You can now either add the leaves and saute them or add the already steamed leaves.  In either case the leaves should be soft.  Season with salt and pepper and set aside.  Try to remove any additional liquid which is pooling in the bottom of the pan.

Once the beets are done, cut them into 1/2 in slices.  I cut my big ones in half lengthwise first to make more manageable pieces.  Now its time to assemble.  Take a 9x13 baking dish and put a 1/4 of the bechamel on the bottom.  Put a layer of lasagne noodles then half of the greens.  then almost half of the beets and sprinkle with 1/3rd of the goat cheese.  Put another 1/4 of the sauce, and repeat with the noodles, greens, beets and goat cheese.  Top with a layer of noodles (there are 3 in total), the remaining sauce and goat cheese.  I had some beets left over so I chopped them up and put them on top.

Cover with foil and bake at 400F for 30 min, then remove the foil and broil for a minute or so, until the top is brown.  A gremolata probably would've been awesome but I didn't think of it until today.

This picture of leftovers doesn't do it justice.

Petitions to Sign

The fight for the University of California is being waged on two fronts.  The first, which garners attention in the form of strikes and protests, is against the direction taken by the UC management, i.e Mark Yudof and co.  They are pursuing privatization of the University, which will never work, because frankly, our brand, our caché, is being the best public university in the world, and we can't compete financially with the Ivies if we go to a hybrid public/private model. 

The second front is the battle for state funding, which is root of the problem.  The legislature has reduced the support it allocates per UC student by 50% over the last ten years and spends more per prisoner than student.  The only way to reverse the decline is to show the legislators that the voting public values education.  To that end I'm going to direct you to three sets of petitions, two aimed at your legislators and the governor and one aimed at the UC regents who are voting on a fee increase.  Please sign them, or better yet, call your representative, and let him or her know that you value public education, the best public education in the world. (Sign them even if you aren't a Californian--every name helps!)

To the legislature and governator:

http://www.ucforcalifornia.org/cal/home/
http://checkingeducation.com/petition

To the regents: http://www.saveuc.org/petition_fees.php

The 90s Were Kinda Awesome....

I found the blog 90sWoman and was reminded how much the 90s rocked (well, at least the second half did--I wasn't very conscious of 'rocking' before 1995).  I can't decide which of the following songs was the anthem to my feminist infused teen angst:




or Bitch by Meredith Brooks.  EMI disabled embedding, unfortunately, so you'll have to follow the link to see it.

(She even plays her own guitar solos! Too bad she was a one hit wonder)

Both of the songs above were mainstream hits and that was part of what was awesome about the 90s.  Women rocked* and, for a little while, it was cool.

*See also Alanis Morissette, Hole, Veruca Salt, Fiona Apple, and my favorite, Liz Phair.

Interesting Research Alert: Girls and Math

There is a theory explaining why there are so few women in the highest levels of math and science which is very comforting to scientists (see Larry Summers) looking to justify the persistent gap which remains many decades after the 'women's lib' movement.  Its quite simple.  You posit that on average there is no difference between the ability to do math and science of men and women (the means are the same), however, men vary more in their ability so there are more really smart men than really smart women.  Let's look at the figure below and take the X axis to be math ability, with 0 being average and the Y axis to be the probability for a person to have X ability in math. This theory says that, contrary to what people thought in the dark ages (pre women's lib), women's ability in math is not described by the green curve, and men's ability is described by the blue curve.  Rather, they believe that women's ability is described by the blue curve and men's ability is described by the red curve.   You see that the red curve is higher than the blue curve for values of X greater than .7, i.e. there are more men than women who are .7 in ability greater than the average, while the mean value of both distributions are 0. 

image from wikipedia

Some people say that both men and women are described by the blue curve for values of X which are less than 1, but for values greater than 1, the men's curve is enhanced so that the 'tails' of the distribution are higher for men.

Some new research from economists at MIT suggests that this simple theory does not hold.  Part of the motivation for the theory I outlined above is that not only are there very few women in the highest levels of academic math and science, there are also very few girls performing at the highest math levels in high school.  The researchers, as described in this article, focused on those top math student by looking at the results from the past 60 years of American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) contest, a math exam taken by some 125,000 "exceptional high school students".  They found that there were 4 boys for every 1 girl in the top 94% and in the top 99.9% that gap increased to 12 to 1.  However, suspecting that environment rather than innate ability might explain these results, they looked at the distribution by school of the highest performing students, those competing in the International Math Olympiad.  They found that while the boys were distributed over approximately 200 high schools, the girls came from just 20 schools.  In their words, "the gender gap at the very highest levels is in part due to extreme selection effects". 

I've skimmed through the paper, and it presents a more complicated picture than what is outlined in the article.  For example, while they found variation among high schools in the AMC sample, it was barely statistically significant, which might lessen the claim for environmental bias.  In any case, they say they do not want to draw conclusions, although they make broad but non committal statements about girls susceptibility to peer pressure and say their results aren't inconsistent with the 'men vary more in their ability' argument.  It's a murky field but what it can be said that there are persistent gender differences at the highest levels of math but that clearly there are some environmental factors at work.

I Miss Them Already

Last bag came in our CSA box a couple of weeks ago.  Good-bye delicious tomatoes, see you again in August.

A Town Hall Meeting I Can Get Behind

Tonight I went to a town hall meeting sponsored by the ASUC (Associated Students of the University of California) featuring Chancellor Birgeneau, Executive Vice Chancellor Breslauer, and Dean of Students Poullard and Vice Chancellor for Budget and Resource Planning Costantinidis.  The purpose of the meeting was to allow students to ask questions of the Chancellor and to facilitate some transparency in this crisis.  I came out of it reassured that Berkeley is in pretty good hands, given the circumstances.

Birgeneau, in contrast to Mark Yudof, President of the UC system, seems to understand and believe in the mission of the University.  Both he and the Vice Chancellor implored students to become politically active, to take their family and friends to the local offices of their elected representatives and demand that they support higher education.  He said that he hopes 100,000 students would march on Sacramento this spring and that grassroots movements were crucial to solving the crisis.  He has been advocating for a federal 'bailout' of public higher education, stating that the government could spend half of the money it spent on saving AIG and it would solve the financial woes of the top 20 public universities in the country forever.  And, when asked why the legislature has been systematically devaluing and divesting from public education over the past couple of decades, after saying that he had some theories which he didn't want to say publicly, he basically said that he thinks it is a reaction to the way California's demographics have changed.  If you read between the lines that means the politically enfranchised class, largely white and well off, doesn't want to spend money to educate the poor, largely non-white growing minority.

That's a pretty bold statement for a Chancellor to make (well, he explicitly said he didn't want to be on the record about it) but Birgeneau is committed to civil rights, access and equality.  He's got a great  resume:

• Registered voters in the deep south during the civil right movement
• While dean of science at MIT ordered a report on discrimination against women faculty which found systematic discrimination (a very important study)
  
• Chaired the National Academies committee on gender bias in the sciences
• Publicly against Prop 209, the repeal of affirmative action, saying Berkeley was worse off because of it.  (Read this Op-Ed by him, it's great: "Minority inclusion is a public good, not a private benefit")
  
• Publicly urged Berkeley community to vote against Prop 8
• Was the first in his family to finish high school (ok, not part of a liberal resume but a very interesting fact)
  

The town hall meeting was structured so that the panelists would speak first, Birgeneau for 15 or 20 minutes, and then the students could ask questions.  For the most part the audience was respectful, with some boo-ing, but mostly listening.  Once the question and answer part started, however, it was clear that there were many students, mostly undergrads, who were angry and frustrated about the budget crisis.  Their questions were generally angry and impassioned, and they didn't quite know how to react when met with sympathetic responses from the administrators.  The questions went something like this:

student: "X is a huge problem, what are YOU doing to solve it?"
Chancellor: "I agree that X is a problem and I'm doing Y and Z to try to solve it but it's a hard problem"
student, deflated: "Oh, ok."

Of course, there were some questions in which the panel and student didn't agree, but for the most part it seemed that the Berkeley administration was not working at cross purpose to the student.  I only stayed for about 30 minutes of questions since it became evident that more or less the same question was being asked each time.  I got the sense that many students were afraid for the future and wanted answers that couldn't always be given.  I understand where they are coming from; it is an unsettling time to be a member of the public education community. 

I'll end with a quote from the op-ed Birgeneau wrote that I linked to above.  I think it is an apt statement for today and I hope that he is as driven by this principle today as he was in 2005.

"Ultimately it is a fight for the soul of this institution. Inclusion is about leadership and excellence, principles that California and its leading public university have long represented and might again. "

ps: The Daily Cal live blogged it

Mmmm...Cream Sauce

We don't usually eat very rich foods.  Cream is generally reserved for desserts, and even then we don't have it often.  However, a few weeks ago I bought some cream on a whim for the creamy rice stuffed squash.  It sat in our fridge for a week or so (thankfully it was ultra pasteurized!) until I spotted it while trying to figure out what to make for dinner.  A cream sauce, made completely without guidance so I make no promises as to its authenticity, resulted and I was quite pleased.  Given that its main ingredients are cream and butter, it will not become a dinner staple, however it is perfect for a bit of indulgence every now and then. 

I used roasted tomatoes in this recipe, and I think their acidity cut some of the heaviness of the cream.  Slow roasting tomatoes yields delicious results, even with less than stellar produce, and I highly recommend giving them the full 45 min to 1 hr they deserve.  (Google 'slow roasted tomatoes' and you'll find hundreds of variations).  The sauce itself is quick to make, so you don't have to plan too far ahead if you already have the tomatoes on hand.

Pasta with Cream Sauce and Slow Roasted Tomatoes

4 or more diced and Roasted Tomatoes
(Dice, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper then bake for 45 min - 1hr at 350F.)

4 small or 2-3 medium garlic cloves, minced with salt

5 sprigs of fresh thyme

2/3 to 1 cup heavy cream * this is very approximate, I didn't measure it before I poured, unfortunately

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 packed cup of chopped greens

1/4-1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped

2 servings of cooked pasta, shells or tubes are best because they suck up the sauce

optional lemon wedge

Melt the butter in skillet over medium low heat, then add the minced garlic.  Cook for 3 minutes, until soft and fragrant, then add the leaves of the springs of thyme.  Add cream, stirring until it's hot, then add the greens, cooking till wilted which should take a couple of minutes.  Then add pasta, tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste.  Take off stove and add in 1/2 bunch chopped parsley.  Serve with a lemon wedge if you think it needs more acidity.

A Dia De Los Muertos Jazz Funeral for Public Education

"Being the President of the University of California is like being the manager of a cemetery; there are many people under you, no one is listening."
-UC President Mark Yudof

On the heels of the Regent's vote to increase student fees by 32% and the continued defunding of all sectors of education in California, we the casualties of these decisions must take mass action against our collective death.

Come mourn the death of public education in California and celebrate our collective rebirth.

Altars to the dead on display all day at the Heller Lounge Multicultural Center in MLK.

Jazz Funeral for Public Education 12-1PM. Starts at Sproul Hall and ends at California Hall.

Dress in black OR bright colors.

Sponsored by: The Center for Latino Policy Research, the Comparative Ethnic Studies program, AFSCME 3299 the Solidarity Alliance, among others.

Protest Public U Press_Release-Oct_28

UC Crisis Website Round Up

Much has happened with the UC budget crisis in the past couple of weeks.  I've been in a hole trying to finish an analysis so I've largely skipped out on the events.  Anyways, here is a list of good websites about the issues.

Most comprehensive:

Keep California's Promise
Remaking the University

Others:
Save UC
The Phoenix Project for UC Democracy
Checking Education
Berkeley Alliance Against the Cuts
Saving UCLA
UC Faculty Walkout 

Roasted Squash with Bok Choy and Edamame

I don't like tofu.  Since I'm a vegetarian I'm supposed to eat it three times a day, but I can't.  I think it tastes like the sponges women use to put on thick, oozy foundation.  I used to eat it when I was bike racing, but I never truly enjoyed it.  Tofu can be good, for example well marinated tofu is often delicious, but it still feels like a sponge.  I just can't get over the sponginess so I don't cook it.  This is irrelevant information unless you read the following recipe and wonder why I didn't use tofu, since it would seem to be the natural choice.  I find edamame to be a more palatable protein and use it instead.

Now that I've preempted the question that probably would not have occurred, let's move on to the recipe.  It's very simple, healthy and satisfying.  Enjoy!

Roasted Squash with Bok Choy and Edamame.

A winter squash, I used red kuri
Several heads of bok choy or baby bok choy
1 cup Edamame
2 cloves of garlic
Vegetable or peanut oil
Soy sauce
Rice vinegar

Rice, cooked the way you like it.

optional: 
Toasted sesame oil
2 Tbsp sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 375F.

Slice the squash into thin 1 inch pieces and toss with a few tablespoons of the vegetable or peanut oil, a couple splashes of rice vinegar and a couple splashes of soy sauce.  Put in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast until soft and the edges are starting to brown, about 25 min.  You should probably stir it a couple of times so it doesn't get blackened.

While the squash is cooking, clean the bok choy and slices it into 1 in thick strips (very approximately).  Mince the garlic.  Heat 1 tablespoon of veg/peanut oil over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook, stirring for one minute, then add the bok choy and stir.  You can put a tablespoon or so of water into the pan and cover to wilt the bok choy.  It should take about 7 min.  While the bok choy is wilting, heat a small sauce pan over med-hight heat.  Add the sesame seeds and stir frequently for one minute or until the seeds are lightly toasted.    When the bok choy is just about done, add the edamame to heat it through.

Once the squash is done, add it to the pan with the bok choy.  Toss with a splash of soy sauce and another of rice vinegar.  Drizzle with some toasted sesame oil and the sesame seeds.  Serve over rice.

UC Finances

This letter by UCSC Professor Bob Meister, President of the Council of UC Faculty Associations, explains how, beginning in 2004, UC has depended on tuition raises, or the ability to make arbitrary tuition raises to provide the collateral for bonds for construction.  The construction is not merely for research facilities but for adminstrative, athletic and other non academic buildings. 

I don't understand the full contents of the letter, although the summary here is clearer, albeit lacking in details.  The bottom line is that the UCOP set the University's feet on the path to privatization at least 5 years ago and that it needs to stop now, before it is too late.

The Crisis of the Public University: Mon. Oct 24th, 2009

Stuffed Vegetables for Two Seasons

It's nearing the end of October and I have yet to post a recipe!  Traveling has kept me out of the kitchen, however I have several recipes stocked piled to share.  This post concerns the stuffing of vessel-like vegetables.  September and October are wonderful months produce-wise, because the last of the summer bounty, such as summer squash,  peppers, and tomatoes are still readily available but fall and winter favorites are beginning to make their way into the markets and my CSA box.  Within the span of a couple of weeks I made two very different stuffed vegetable recipes: polenta stuffed bell peppers and creamy rice stuffed winter squash.  Both feature a spicy filling, since poblano peppers were a constant element of our box for a couple of months.  Enjoy!

Polenta Stuffed Bell Peppers

2.75 cups of broth
1.5 cups of milk
1 cup of coarse ground cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika or other chile powder

1 medium onion, diced
2 poblano or other spicy peppers, seeded and diced

4 bell peppers
crumbled goat cheese

Preheat the oven to 400F.

You can use precooked polenta, or, if making your own, bring the milk and broth to boil in a medium sauce pan.  Add the salt and cornmeal, whisking while adding, and continue to whisk until it becomes smooth and creamy.   You need to stir it constantly for about 5 minutes, after that you can stir it occasionally, for a total of 20-30 min.  When the polenta is finished, stir in the butter.  While the polenta is cooking, heat some olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan on medium-low heat and add the garlic.  After a minute, add the onion and cook for about 8 minutes, then add the poblanos and cook until soft.

When the polenta is finished, stir in the paprika or chile powder, adding more or less to your taste, and add more salt if you need to.  Then stir in the onion-pepper mixture.

You can prepare the peppers by either cutting off the tops or cutting off the top 1/4 lengthwise, as I did in the photo.  Fill the peppers with the stuffing and then top with the crumbled goat cheese.  Put in a baking pan and bake until the peppers become soft and the goat cheese is lightly browned.

WARNING: There is much more polenta than fits in most peppers--you could cut the polenta part in half if you wanted.  We ate the extra as leftovers the next day. 

Creamy Rice Stuffed Winter Squash

1 stuffable winter squash, I used red kuri
Salt, Pepper, optional chili powder

1 cup long grain rice

1 poblano, diced

1 onioin, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

2 cups water

1 tsp ground annatto (achiote) seed

1 bay leaf

3oz of cheddar cheese (I used white)

1/3 cut of heavy cream

handful of chopped fresh oregano

1 cup frozen fresh corn

1 tbsp mild green chili powder (optional)

crumbled goat cheese

optional: black beans, diced tomatoes.

Heat oven to 400F.

Halve the squash and remove the seeds.  Rub the inside and and cut edges with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt, pepper and chili powder, if you want.  Here my memory fails me.  I know I baked the halves face down for about 40 minutes (until it was soft), but I don't remember if it was on a bare baking sheet or if I put it in a roasting dish, filled the bottom with a quarter inch of water and covered it with foil.  I think I did the later...

While the squash is cooking you make a variation of my favorite rice recipe.  I found it on the Food Network website via a google search.  They have an awesome black bean recipe too. 

In a medium sized pot, heat a couple table spoons of olive oil and saute the onions and peppers with the anatto seed.  Once they are soft, add the water, rice, bay leaf and 1 tsp of salt and bring to a boil.  Cover tightly and cook for 20 min.  This will make about twice as much rice as you need.  Save half of it for another meal.

While the rice is cooking, grate the cheddar and chop the oregano.  Once the rice is finished, stir in the cheese, cream, oregano, corn and black beans into the half that will go in the squash.  I didn't add tomatoes, but afterwards thought they might've been nice.

Fill the squash with the rice mixture and top with crumbled goat cheese.  Put in oven, baking until its warmed through and the goat cheese is browned.

I've Been Adopted

Through the Adopt-A-Physicist program of the National Society for Physics Students and several other national physics organizations, I've been adopted by three high school classes for the next three weeks.  The purpose of the program is to demystify physicists and physics by letting high school students interact with them through online forums.  I've been chosen by three very different high schools: an all girls catholic school in southern california, a large rural high school in South Carolina and an international prep school in New York.  Couldn't get any different, could they?  So far I have only heard from the girls at the Catholic school.  They seem to be bright and inquisitive!  They are asking me questions ranging from "what is a muon?" to "how is it to be a woman in a male dominated field?" to "what are your hobbies?" (in less generic form than I have written).  I'm curious to see how the questions differ from student to student and class to class.  It should be an interesting experiment!

More Tacit Support from Berkeley Administration?

Today Berkeley campus community members received an email from the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs regarding the restoration of library hours to their normal level.  Due to the budget cuts most libraries were closed on the weekends and they would not be open for 24 hrs during finals week.  The hours were restored using donations from parents.  Contained in the email was the following sentence:

Recent events and concerns raised by students, faculty and staff served as important reminders to all of us that libraries are a critical resource for students and a vital part of this university.

This is an allusion to the library 'study in' which occurred at the anthropology library last weekend.  I might be reading too much into it, but I imagine that its a bit of tacit approval.

Score another one for the ladies (and the UC system)!

First woman Nobelist in economics today!  Elinor Ostrom, a professor at Indiana University, is a political scientist (Nobel committee decided that perhaps honoring traditional economists wasn't the best idea this year) and got her PhD from UCLA.  She was a co-recipient with Oliver E. Williamson, a Berkeley professor.

Update: Paul Krugman, last year's Econ Nobelist, explains why they got the award.

So much to blog about, so little time!

I'm in Boston for a weekend with my girlfriends from undergrad.  We haven't all been together since our trip last year to New York, and before then we hadn't seen each other in years, so it's going to be awesome.  I believe some movie watching, wine drinking and apple picking are on the schedule, along with a bit of sight seeing and general we-aren't-really-girly-girls girliness.

So, the highlights of things I wanted to blog about but didn't have time:

1. It's been a good year for women and science Nobels this year!   Two out of the 3 recipients of the physiology and medicine prize were women: Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol W. Greider.  They did the prize-worthy work while at UC Berkeley, Blackburn, now at UCSF,  as a professor, and Greider as a graduate student.  Blackburn used her platform as Nobelist to speak about the troubles of the UC system:

"Blackburn stressed that she and her colleagues thrive in the academic research environment that the University of California offers. The goals of academic research are very different than those of corporate research enterprises, she explained, because scientists are free to pursue questions that are not necessarily for commercial purposes or for finding an end product.

“This is such a recognition of the UC system that I was able to have the opportunity to do this research,” she said. “The UC system lets research happen in ways that go in all sorts of unexpected directions.”
Blackburn is hoping for more of the same, but acknowledges that budget challenges are taking a toll on the academic and research missions of UCSF and the University of California. She says it is important for the UC system to maintain access and affordability, so students can get a quality university education.
“I think UC is a huge boon to the state of California,” Blackburn said. “It’s a wellspring of ideas, of educated people, of innovation. And it sort of breaks my heart to see it being under attack – I do not mean that literally, but in this sad state. So we really need to do what we can to ameliorate this situation because what UC brings to the state is huge.
“I have been a tremendous beneficiary of it,” Blackburn added. “I was able to do research with really tremendous colleagues, students and trainees who were attracted to the UC system because it has such high standards.”"

She also talked about graduate students and women in science.  I think I like this woman.

 A woman, Ada Yonath, was a co-recipient of the Chemistry prize.  She was the first woman to win one since the 60s!  Physics also hasn't had a female prize winner since the 60s, although there have been some notable absence of prizes where they were deserved.  In fact, there have only been 6 women physics or chemistry Nobelists in its 105 year history and half of the went to Curies (two to Marie Curie, she won for both physics and chemistry, and one to her daughter in chemistry.  what a family!).  Also, I like that the newspapers are reported she found out she received the prize while working and watching her 13 year old grand daughter.

2.  The pro-public education advocates have been hitting the op-ed pages of major news papers.  The New York Times had two columnists write recently about the need to invest in public education.  Paul Krugman (Nobelist, incidentally), talks about public higher education in general and specifically about the California community college system, which is an important feeder, through junior transfers, for the UCs and CSUs.  Bob Herbert went to Berkeley for the September 24th protests and wrote a column on the troubles of Berkeley and what it means for the nation.  Judith Butler, a Berkeley professor, published an Op-Ed in the UK Gaurdian's fantastic Comment Is Free section (some amazing posts by very interesting people, check it out), explaining why the system is in uproar and why its partially about the direction of the UC system.  I'm not sure why it's in the Gaurdian, but they have a Comment Is Free section on the US so maybe it's not too out of place.  Lastly, Berekely's Chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, floated some ideas on the future of public education in the Washington Post.  I don't think they will ever fly, but at least he is thinking about solutions. 

3...I'll write more later.  Expect to hear about the connections between women, science and competitive sports, along with some new outreach that I'm working on.  I also have a backlog of recipes that I hope to get up soon.  Time to have fun!

Links, Videos and The Trouble With Mark Yudof

First some links:

On October 24th at Berkeley there will be a conference to organize a plan to save public education in California. All are welcome.

Remaking the University is a blog by Chris Newfield, a UCSB English professor, linking to coverage of the budget crisis as well as his own insights.  He wrote an interesting piece in the Chronicle for Higher Education which is worth a read (you need a subscription to read the full text but students should be able to get it for free through the campus network or vpn). 

And some videos:

If you want to get fired up for saving public education, watch this articulate, funny and impassioned speech by Robert Reich, Berkeley Professor and former Secretary of Labor under Clinton. Even if you don't want to get fired up, it's worth a watch because he is entertaining.




  
This video is part of a series of videos from Save the University's teach in the night preceding the walk out. They are all lectures by faculty and in general they are quite good and informative.

And Yudof:

Lastly I want to address the people who don't understand why the protesters are frustrated with Mark Yudof and UCOP from an ardent, Berkeley loving protester's point of view.  We know that the roots of the problem are much deeper than Mark Yudof, however, we cannot understand why he won't sacrifice, won't bleed, to save the UC we know and believe in. It is a University built on inclusion, unlike its Ivy walled brethren, where any undergrad who is capable can take classes from world class faculty (and grad students ;) ). The trouble with Yudof is that he wants to retain the UC system's accolades for outstanding faculty, students and research, but to do so he is willing to sacrifice the access that has made the system truly special.  He won't stand up to the legislators nor make the public case that this model system for education is worth saving. To us idealists (a large fraction of the Berkeley population) it is unacceptable.

More Fun with AutoTune: Carl Sagan Edition

I meant to post this a while ago but got caught up in the walk out blogging.  Its Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking autotuned.  Cool.

Where do we go from here?

By all accounts the walkout was a big success.  An estimated 5,000 people participated in the rally at Berkeley and there were protests, albeit smaller, at all the other UCs.  Some professors held class but used the time and platform to teach about the issues, some canceled class so students could participate, some ignored the events altogether.  I've been in several large protests but the only one which compared in intensity of conviction and purpose of the crowd on Thursday were the protests in Chicago on the eve of the start of the Iraq war.  Luckily there were no police in riot gear this time. 
 
The response of each campus to the protest have been quite different.  A friend at Davis said her Chancellor sent an email essentially dismissing the protests while repeating the party line that the budget decisions are with the students best interest at heart.  She encouraged students to call their department office if they found their classes were canceled.  I chatted with a few physics grad students from UC Santa Cruz, where students have been occupying the Graduate Commons, and they reported that their Chancellor hasn't addressed the protests at all.  Neither campus features articles about the protests on their websites.

The Berkeley response has been strikingly different and quite interesting.  Prior to the walk out the campus community was sent an email by the Vice Chancellor informing students that the walk out was being held, that classes were in session unless professors had canceled them and that students might encounter picket lines but that they had a right to cross.  In what seemed like an attempt at reassurance, he mentioned that in past strikes "picketers have been very committed to their point of view but respectful of the views of others."  The tone was matter-of-fact and non-judgmental.  September 25th the campus community received an email from the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor thanking us for our good behavior:

We would like to express our appreciation to our campus community - faculty, staff, students, and alumni - for the orderly, peaceful and effective way in which the September 24th budget protest actions were held on and around campus.  While there was large participation in the day's actions, they occurred with minimal disruption to university operations and to our responsibilities to our students.  Berkeley is proud of being the home of the Free Speech Movement and yesterday's protests exemplified the best of our tradition of effective civil action.

Your actions have sent a clear and important message to our legislators and to the California public that the State's disinvestment in public higher education must stop. We hope that we can build on these actions together to continue to inform the public and the State legislature that cuts to the University of California undermine our State's future and that it is in the interests of all of the people of our great State of California to reinvest in public higher education.

Robert J. Birgeneau
Chancellor


George W. Breslauer
Executive Vice-Chancellor & Provost

Before we stop and analyze that email I'd like to point you to the link on Berkeley's website to a Berkeley News Center article about the protests (this is all UC Berkeley produced content), titled "Boisterous rally draws thousands to Sproul Plaza to vent anger at UC cut backs".  The image I posted above headlines the article and they have a great slide show, giving a genuine view of the day's activities.  I think the Chancellor's strategy is pretty clear.  By making no negative statements about the protests but essentially ignoring a large source of the anger and frustration he is trying to control the message, steer the protests away from the UCOP and administration and not so subtly nudge it towards the state budget and Sacramento.  On one hand it's a irksome to find members of the administration (although not UCOP) trying guide the grassroots movement which is ostensibly against them.  On the other hand I completely agree with the direction they want us to go and think we have a much better case in Sacramento if we are working with the administration instead of against them.  I have respect for Birgeneau, and while he has been less than impressive in this 'crisis', I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  Railing against Yudof and the Regents (who at this point I have practically no respect for, but I'll get to that later) might feel good but it's not going to change anything.  Yudof was appointed by the Regents and the Regents are appointed by the Governor so there is little hope that getting rid of him will bring in anyone better.  Once you consider that the Regents, generally business people and layers, are major campaign donors to the Governor with little to no education experience and often no connection to the UC system, you realize that Sacramento is where we have to focus our efforts.

The root of California's budget problems is Proposition 13, an constitutional amendment in the 70s which capped property tax values at 1% of the purchase price of a house and at the same time required a 2/3rds vote to raise taxes and pass budgets.  The measure decimated the state's revenue sources and holds the budget hostage to the minority.  The ideal situation would be to call a constitutional convention to rewrite the entire document, which is extremely flawed (remember Prop 8).  While some are seriously proposing a convention, it might be practically impossible accrue sufficient political will to hold one.  A likely and timely solution, however, is to amend the constitution to remove the 2/3rd requirement.  It only takes a simple majority to effect that change through a ballot proposition.  Berkeley Professor George Lakoff submitted one to the Attorney General and we could vote on it in next election.

Now I'll get back to why I've lost respect for Yudof.  As I mentioned before, watching his address to the UC community about the cuts, left me with a picture of a man on the defensive with no inclination to fight for the core values of the University.  After reading this appalling interview in the New York Times (dated 9/24/09!), I am convinced he does not care at all for the remarkable system he is captaining.  He actually said, "being president of the University of California is like being manager of a cemetery: there are many people under you, but no one is listening".  Clearly he does not feel like he is responsible to the University community if he is willing to say that.  So, I have no respect for him, but, as I mentioned above, I don't think attacking him will be fruitful.  Of course we shouldn't keep quiet as he pursues a course of privatization however we need to fix the underlying cause so the University, and the rest of the state educational system, can reverse its downward slide. 

So, to Sacramento we must go, however the legislature won't be in session again until January so we risk loosing momentum.  Several speakers during the rally called for the UCs to band together with the CSUs, community colleges and K-12 schools to demand the State make education a priority.  If we can coordinate across these groups I think we have a really chance for change.  I'll keep posting as I hear about more action, and if you are a California resident and haven't emailed your representatives, please do so now!  If you are a Berkeley staff, student, faculty, parent or concerned citizen you can sign up to help with the Berkeley Alliance Against the Cuts.

Solidarity, What is a Public University?

For me this poem by Isaac Miller, a Berkeley junior, was the best part of the rally.  It was electrifying, particularly after the first two minutes or so.  Give it a watch.

Roasted Tomato and Olive Sauce

We often end up eating assorted spreads with crusty bread and salad for dinner.  The combination of the bold flavors of the sauces, the refreshing crunch of the salad and the soul-satisfying mouthfuls of good bread is irresistible on nights when I don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  Below I share a concoction that I developed a few weeks ago.  It falls somewhere between a condiment and a sauce.  The night I made it we had it with bread and the next day I tossed it with pasta for lunch.  Yum.


The green sauce in the background is basil pesto enlivened by some mint.  I substituted 1/3 of the basil for mint which gave a subtle twist to the always delicious basil/garlic/oil/cheese concoction.

Roasted Tomato and Olive Sauce

6 Romas or other firm tomato, diced (seeded and pulp removed if you want a drier sauce)

couple pinches of red pepper flakes
2/3 cup pitted Kalamata olives
2 Tbsp chopped fresh herbs such as basil, parsley, oregano or marjoram

Olive Oil, salt, pepper


Preheat the oven to 350F.

Toss the tomatoes with the red pepper flakes, salt to taste and a few glugs of olive oil.  Roast them for about 30 min until they just start to brown.

In a food processor combine the tomatoes, olives and herbs*.  Blend until desired thickness is achieved.  You might want to add some more olive oil if the sauce seems too dry.  You could also use sundried tomatoes, in which case you'll definitely need some oil.   

It can be served spooned over bread or tossed with spaghetti and some parmesan! 

*I might have thrown in a few cloves of garlic too.  Embarrassingly, I don't remember.

Our University

September 24th, 12pm Sproul Plaza: Be there

To all my Berkeley friends,  12 pm at Sproul plaza tomorrow.  Together with the faculty, staff and students of all 10 campuses of the UC system, we are going to let the UC leadership and the state of California know that they cannot continue to underfund education in this state.  I'll be at the north end of LeConte at 11:40 if you want to walk over together. 

Image from Wikimedia Commons

"When I am out on the quad tomorrow, it will be with the intention of motivating the leadership in this university to fight, fight like hell, to make the case to the public and the legislature that we MUST support a public option for higher education." --John Conway, UC Davis Physics Professor 

Update: SAVE the University, an organization of Berkeley faculty, has an excellent, reasoned document on the details of the situation.

Update on Why I'm Walking Out

The Daily Cal has a good editorial today, I've picked out the part I particularly agree with:

Walk the Talk (Daily Cal Senior Editorial Board)

University Issues: We endorse the walkout as a critical attempt to demonstrate to voters that higher education must be prioritized.

.....

This walkout should target voters across the state; only they are empowered to institute remedies for the ultimate root of the crisis-the failure of the Legislature to fully fund higher education, partially due to the 2/3 majority requirement. By consolidating and unifying the message the walkout aims to send, we can more coherently argue for fundamental, systemic change, rather than simply forcing administrators to acquiesce to the immediate demands of a loud, hostile and disruptive crowd.

As a board composed entirely of students, we understand the concerns of the community and each of us has personally felt the struggles inflicted by the budget cuts. We acknowledge that administrators largely have their hands tied this year, and we each have to sacrifice in the wake of unprecedented budget cuts. But though we will bear our burden cooperatively this year, that's not to say this system can continue.

Enough is enough-enough tuition hikes, enough pay cuts, enough layoffs, enough enrollment cuts. Now is the time to advocate for future change, and the walkout is an important symbol and initial step to effect this change on a broad scale. To this aim, we urge students to participate in the walkout, educate themselves and show voters that students do value public higher education. Most importantly, do not allow yourselves to be sucked into unproductive extremism. This movement can only be successful if participants remain united behind a cause, and pointing fingers will not achieve that end. It's time to move forward.