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.

Why I'm Walking Out

Apologies for this post being so unpolished!  It was hastily written, but you get the point!

A University of California wide walk out has been called for this Thursday, September 24th, to protest the UC President and UC Regents' handling of the budget crisis.  The walkout is a joint effort of faculty, students and the unions.  The demands as laid out by the faculty are:

1. No furloughs or paycuts on salaries below $40,000.
2. The immediate institution of the Academic Senate Council's July 29 recommendation regarding the implementation of furloughs.
3. Full disclosure of the budget.

I've thought long and hard about taking this action.  Much of the propaganda in favor of the walk out have been populist claims of excesses in executive compensation and hordes of money stashed away by UC administrators, planting images of fat cats gorging themselves on caviar while the poor, downtrodden university community withers away, starving.  The reality is that you have to pay people to run the best public university system in the country and that there are no piles of cash lying around.  These arguments are dubious at best, and only serve to obscure the real problems.

First and foremost the blame lies with the legislature.  When adjusted for inflation it allocates to education half of what it did in 1990.  California ranks in the bottom 10 in the nation in education spending.  We spend as much on prisons as we do educating the people who will one day drive the economic engine of the state.  The problems in our state governance are systemic.  It is harder to raise taxes than it is to take away a fundamental right.  The uninformed voting public essentially determines the budget through the ridiculous proposition system.  However, as hopeless as it may seem, every person who cares about the University of California, especially those participating in the walk out, should call, email or write their representatives to tell them that the cuts to education are absolutely unacceptable, that education insures our future, and when they cut funding to education they are crippling California.  You can do this through this website http://www.ucforcalifornia.org/cal/home/

However, the walkout is not about the legislature, it is about the actions the UC administration has taken to deal with the budget situation.  From what I've read and from listening to Mark Yudof, the UC President, whose address to the Regents and students is below, the administration is taking a defeatist stance which is additionally out of line with the mission of the University. 

Mark Yudof at the Regents Meeting: Part 1 of 3

Watching Yudof's address I was struck by how whiny and defensive he sounds.  Nobody argues that this crisis will take sacrifices from all of us, however, he insinuates that the student body is trying to avoid them.  He flatly says that he has given up on the legislature, and petulantly complains that his opposition won't engage the politicians as he has.  That defensive and combative posture does nothing but entrench the idea of the administration pitting themselves against the University community.  They have ignored the faculty recommendations and are filling the budget gaps on the backs of the middle class.  The following video by Ananya Roy, a distinguished UC Berkeley professor, articulates the arguments for the walk out much better than I could.

Ananya Roy at Berkeley ASUC Meeting

Most importantly, I am participating in the walk out because I love the University.  Walking out and joining my voice with other Cal community members, even if I don't agree with some of their specific arguments, is a way of saying to the world that what is happening to the UC is unacceptable.  What the University of California stands for is too important to let slip quietly away.

Besides, what kind of Berkeley student would I be if I didn't go to a protest at least once a year?!?!

Here is a list of links if you want more information:

A compelling open letter by Cal faculty member Catherine Cole
A website detailing the faculty resolution, over 800 UC faculty have signed
A blog compiling news coverage and other information
A faculty member, Brad DeLong, on the academic ramifications of some of the cuts and how the administration couched them.
Also related, the legislature is trying to make a power grab and control UC, using the populist executive compensation arguments as justification, tell them to stop!

And again, please please please email your representatives and the governor.

A beautiful image

Astronomy Picture of the Day displayed a gorgeous image on September 21st.  It's a newly repaired Hubble Space Telescope image of the Abel cluster.  Most impressive is an extremely lensed galaxy in the upper right quadrant.  Seeing all the galaxies in such detail reminds me of what a vast universe we live in! 

Perfect Lazy Day Cake

I've been busy lately.  I'm working on several projects at once, I had a cold and Kyle took (and passed!) his quals which all combined to make me pretty stressed out and somewhat anxious.   This weekend, however, the day after the quals, we had a supremely lazy day.  It was raining (in Berkeley in September!) and we were exhausted from the late nights and the celebrating.  It was the perfect day to make the Everyday Cake from Orangette.  As she mentions, the simple, homely cake is perfect for an afternoon snack and I enjoyed it as breakfast for a couple of mornings.  My only suggestion to the recipe she posts is that you use almond extract instead of vanilla.  It gives the cake more character.

Update on art/physics

Remember when I said I wanted to see interpretive dance about particle physics?  It's been done.

Art and Science and Giants

It's all over the nerd blogophere: Today They Might Be Giants (TMBG) released a new album, aimed at kids, full of catchy tunes about science and technology.  Like their theme song to the Big Band Theory sitcom on CBS, the songs are awesome.  I've ordered the album* and was excited to find (via amazon, I haven't received the CD yet) that every song comes with a beautifully animated video. There are several videos from the album available on the web, for example here at Skepchick.  I think the following is the most interestingly animated although it has less science content than the others I've seen.





My other favorite video features paleontologists as rock stars, because to kids they are rock stars.  What kid doesn't want to be one?!? 

My one complaint about the four videos I've seen is that the scientists or future scientists are portrayed by only white guys.  The drivers in the above video are diverse but they aren't designing the cars, they are just driving them. There are six other videos so I'm reserving judgment about the album's depiction of scientists until I see the others. 

In somewhat tenuously related news, the CERN Bulletin is reporting that the laboratory would like to setup an International Artist in Residence program whereby artists of any stripe would be awarded access to CERN, its experiments and its physicists.  In return the artist would share his or her work and interact with the community.  The article is vague on details, but it sounds like it could be a an interesting program. 

Particle physics, and to a certain extent cosmology, requires us to imagine spaces where our everyday experience leaves us no intuition, where the scales involved defy analogy to familiar relationships, and where the fundamental constituents are at once ephemeral and timeless.  I'd guess that artists are drawn to the imagination the field requires and, in my limited and biased experience, it seems to be the case.  I have read quite a few times about artists who have taken either the experiments or the physics as subjects.  I posted one image previously and the video below belongs to this story




ANGEL OF THE HIGGS BOSON from josef Kristofoletti on Vimeo.
ps: I'm going to Charleston in May and looking forward to seeing it in person!

A Berkeley resident, completely unconnected with LBL or the University, read about the Atlas experiment and was inspired to make several paintings of the detector which she presented to us at a group meeting.  She stayed for the whole meeting, and her painting stayed with us for several months (I think we got the better end of the deal).    

This post seems to need a conclusion, but my brain is a little tired today and can't quite pull it together. However, it should go along these lines: Mixing art and science is good.  Imagination ties the the two together.  Artists can help us scientists translate our work for the general public....or something like that. 

Personally, I can't wait for an interpretive dance representing the triumphs and inadequacies of the Standard Model.  It has got to come out of the artist in residence program.  

*You can buy the album with the videos on iTunes.  I have a general policy that if I'm going to buy an album, I'm actually going to buy the album, plastic, cover art and all, so I have to wait for the CD.

Cool Cucumbers and Rambling Romas

These recipes went over well at a recent impromptu dinner-party-turned-debate (a natural evolution resulting from mixing wine and a group evenly split between natural and social scientists), so I'm going to share despite the fact that there are no pictures. I didn't think it would be too polite to stop everyone from eating to shove a camera in their food.

I served chilled cucumber soup followed a roasted eggplant and tomato orzo dish. The cucumber soup was inspired by the huge bag of cucumbers which came in our CSA box this week. I had failed to finish the cucumbers from the previous weeks box and the only thing I could think of doing with them besides putting them in salad was making soup. I poked around the internet and my cookbooks and cherry picked ingredients according to what I liked and what I had on hand. The result is rather refreshing but with a very strong flavor.  Think tzaziki in a drinkable form. Note: this recipe and the following feed 7-8.

Chilled Cucumber Soup

3 lg or 4 medium cucumbers seeded and chopped
1.5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small yellow or white onion, chopped
1 tsp of salt
a generous handful of chopped dill
1/2-1 tsp of chile pepper (I used a chipotle powder)
1-2 cups of plain yogurt*
3/4 cup of butter milk*

* One of the guests had a daily allergy so I also made a vegan version by using plain soy yogurt and water in place of the yogurt and buttermilk. Surprisingly good!

You put it all in a food processor and puree, then put it in the fridge until you are ready to serve. Super easy. Adjust the salt and pepper to taste. You might want to put in less of the yogurt and buttermilk in the beginning and add more if you think its too thick.

I started thinking about the main course with a couple criteria in mind. 1) it could not be very complicated to make, and 2) it had to use the eggplant and romas I had gotten in the CSA box. I also had a pile of meyer lemons on the counter from our tree that I thought would be nice to incorporate. A search for eggplant and lemon turned up this recipe which I used as a basis for the dish. From there it just grew organically into something quite tasty.

Warning: This recipe cooks a lot of the ingredients separately before combining them in the end so planning out when you are going to do everything is advised. I didn't really plan much at all before starting it, so that's probably why it's so rambling.

A Rambling Dish of Roasted Eggplant and Romas with Orzo, Among Other Things

 

This picture has nothing to do with the dish--it's just a pretty farmer's market haul.

1 eggplant diced and salted and let to drain for 2-3 hrs
1 tsp red pepper flakes
lots of olive oil
optional vegetable oil
1 large onion
6-8 good sized roma tomatoes, diced
2 cans of garbanzo beans
3 meyer lemons (if using regular lemons, use only 2)
4 garlic cloves
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
handful of basil, ribboned
1.5 cups of orzo
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 450F, if you are so inclined you can preheat the pan you will roast the eggplant in.

Toss the diced and salted eggplant in the juice of 1/2 a lemon, the red pepper flakes, a few glugs of olive oil and pinch or two of salt. Spread onto a baking sheet or roasting pan and cook until soft and brown in spots, about 30 min. You should stir several times during the roasting so that the eggplant doesn't burn.

Put together the vinaigrette by whisking together the juice of the remaining lemon, 1 garlic clove crushed and minced with a large pinch of kosher salt and the ribboned basil and about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of olive oil. Let sit.

Then drain the cans of garbanzos and dump the beans into a loaf pan or some other smallish oven proof pan. Mince the remaining 3 cloves of garlic and add them. Then you want to basically cover the garbanzos in oil. I used about 2/3rds canola oil and 1/3rd olive oil. It's a lot of oil. I was hesitant and I didn't quite cover them but should've since the ones on top got a little dried out. Cover the pan with foil and put it in the oven on a rack below the eggplant. Cook it until the eggplant and tomatoes are done, it doesn't really matter how long.

Lastly (for the oven anyways), in an oven proof skillet, saute the onions over medium heat until they are soft.  Once the onions are soft add the diced tomatoes and cook, covered but stirring occasionally, for 10 min. Then put the skillet, uncovered, in the oven and let it cook for 10 min.  I got very excited about this part because there are few things better than roasted tomatoes.

At some point you need to cook the orzo in salted boiling water until al dente.

The garbanzos, eggplant and tomato/onion mixture should be finishing all around the same time. Once they are all done you combine them (spoon out the garbanzos, don't dump the oil in) and the orzo in the skillet, if its big enough, or a large bowl if you are going to serve it immediately. Throw in the chopped parsley and stir in the vinaigrette. Salt and pepper to taste. You can return it, covered, to the turned off but still warm oven until ready to serve. I passed around some crumbled feta at the same time but it wasn't really necessary.

Ok, I guess I failed on requirement 1.  Trust me when I say it's not that complicated.

Health Care Round Up

I spent academic year 2004-2005 living in Paris, doing research and discovering the french outlook on life. I was a Fulbright scholar, and as such, had State Department health care, which I never had to figure out because I didn't have any medical issues which cost enough to get insurance involved. I could go to the pharmacy and buy my prescriptions at ridiculously low prices (here is a funny story about one of my pharmacy experiences) and when I needed a physical for a cycling team I joined, I just walked to the student health center and they gave me a physical, free of charge. They also gave me an ingenious booklet, called my medical passport, containing all sorts of information about my vaccinations, etc. That booklet put me in control of my medical records, something rarely seen in the US. I marveled at the easy of getting medical care there, but didn't think too much of it since I had always had excellent health care through my parents.

When I returned to the US there was a period of 3 months between my State department health insurance running out and my university health insurance beginning. I was no longer eligible for my parents' plan, so I found myself in the position of being insurance-less. I investigated online and found that the cheapest plan I could get was over a 100$ a month for recent Cal grads, and it basically only covered was major medical problems. I had to see a doctor during this time for ongoing treatment, and guess what, the visits weren't covered since it was a "pre-existing condition". I began to realize the terror of living without adequate health insurance, even if it was only for a paltry three month period in which nothing seriously went wrong.

My sister, like many twenty-something year olds, doesn't have health insurance and so gets all of her primary care through the saintly organization, Planned Parenthood. From antibiotics to contraception, they provide everything for her, although they could not help her in the event of a major emergency. Clearly this is not a sustainable solution, and to make matters worse, when she visit them in suburban Naperville, she has to face pro-life protesters who spew judgment and vitriol. She doesn't always keep her mouth shut; the last time she visited she asked them if they would like to pay for her pap smear or would they rather she just not have one. They didn't have much to say to that.

My personal reaction to the health care debate, formed by the experiences above, is visceral and automatic: our health care system is a national shame, in today's society access to affordable health care is a right, just as education is a right for every child. A visceral reaction, however, does not make for persuasive argument, and I don't think I have much to add to the debate. However, I collected a few internet pieces, one written, one video and one radio, that I've read/seen/heard recently and found to be interesting and informative, and posted them below. Check them out.

If you think that a public option is necessary for health care reform, and I believe that it is, please contact your senators and representatives and let them know. You can email them through senate.gov and house.gov.

1) A piece on Cosmic Variance about the blogger's experience dealing with the health care system due to the sudden deterioration of his elderly father's health.

2) A science based look at the health care problem from New Scientist.

3) A discussion on Fresh Air comparing different health care systems around the world

4) And just for fun:

Cal Advocacy

In light of my previous post, I thought I'd share a request from the Chancellor for a letter writing campaign, in case you are inclined to take action:

Dear Colleagues:

As part of the University's systemwide advocacy efforts, President Yudof is inviting all UC faculty and staff to join in a letter-writing campaign aimed at impressing upon state leaders the critical importance of adequate state support for UC and public higher education in California. I am writing to urge you to be part of this campaign on behalf of UC Berkeley and public higher education.

As you know, the state budget process for 2009-10 ended recently with a budget that leaves UC with 20 percent less state funding than it had at the beginning of last year. That translates into a budget cut for UC Berkeley of nearly $150 million. Faculty and staff pay reductions, student fee increases, and program cuts at UC Berkeley and across the UC system are being implemented to cope with this immediate budget shortfall.

It is critically important to communicate the consequences of these cuts to the elected officials in Sacramento who have disinvested in the University of California.

As the Governor and state lawmakers turn their attention to next year's budget, now is the time to let them know that you care about investing in California's future through higher education. State support is critical to the core instructional program at UC, and if it does not rebound, the impacts to California will be more shocking than most people realize today.

I encourage you to take this opportunity,before the Legislature's scheduled adjournment on Sept. 11, to email the governor and your local members of the State Assembly and State Senate.

A sample letter is available on the Cal Advocacy, http://www.ucforcalifornia.org/cal/home/ website. Please consider personalizing your message for greater effectiveness. Above all, please join us in this movement, one that will continue throughout the coming year, to ensure that your voice is heard with decision makers in Sacramento.

Cal Advocacy
www.ucforcalifornia.org/cal

Sincerely,

Robert J. Birgeneau

Fiat Lux

Image from brainchildvn via Wikimedia Commons

I am unabashedly in love with my University. I knew it from the moment I walked onto the campus when visiting colleges the summer before my senior year of high school. It's a beautiful campus situated in a one-of-a-kind city, but that is only part of its appeal. The idealist in me is enamored with the idea, quintessentially Californian, that a public institution can provide an education on par with the best private institutions in the country. I love it so much that I must admit that I have become a public university snob, turning my nose up at those privileged Ivies.

Here are some facts to be proud of from the Berkeley website:

• 70% have at least one parent born outside the U.S. (2008) (Source)

• 17% are first in their family to attend a college (Fall 2009 and Spring 2010)

• In 2007-08, 33 percent of all Berkeley undergrads (Source) were eligible for Pell Grants (family incomes typically less than $45,000 a year). Berkeley educates more of these economically disadvantaged students than all of the Ivy League universities combined.

For a person who spent most of her time growing up in Midwest suburbia, studying, living and yes, partying, with people with such diverse backgrounds was an amazing experience. I don't think any of the parents of my three best friends from college, the lovely ladies featured here, were born in the US.

I bring this up because recently the Washington Monthly published a new set of college rankings. They came up with a system which, in their words provides "a measure of not just what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country." It is no surprise that Berkeley is ranked number one by a significant margin. It's also no surprise, given the University of California's mandate, that UC San Diego and UCLA came in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Stanford is the first big name private school at number 4, and Harvard, MIT and University of Chicago didn't make the top 10 (they are 11,12 and 13, respectively). I'm happy to say that my sister's alma mater, University of Washington at Seattle, and my brother's current school, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, are also in the top 20 at 14 and 18, respectively.

The University, and California education in general, is in unprecedented financial difficulty right now due to the short sightedness of the legislators and the disaster we call the state Constitution which hamstrings the budget process. Hopefully lawmakers in Sacramento, who are cutting funding to the University of California, including its Cal Grant program which funds low and middle income students, will see these rankings and think twice about what they are doing to the education system that was, and is, a model for the world.

WH Auden

Brad De Long, Berkeley Econ professor, posted WH Auden's September 1, 1939.

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
'I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,'
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the dead,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.