The law will fix student loan interest rates to the 10-year U.S. Treasury note instead of using the current arbitrary formula. It will also establish interest rate ceilings and lock interest rates for the loan’s lifetime. In the process, interest rates will be slashed for the upcoming 2013-14 academic year, with undergraduate rates reduced from 6.8 percent to 3.86 percent.

The law will also retroactively apply to loans taken out after July 1, when interest rates on federal Stafford loans doubled after Congress failed to prevent the expiration of subsidies. Stafford loan interest rates subsequently doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. The legislation is projected to provide $25 billion in debt relief for students in the next five years.

During the past month, legislators from both parties have tried to address both short-term problems stemming from the expiration of the subsidies and long-term problems such as the national trend of increasing student debt and its effects on the economy.

The final bill passed focuses mainly on the short-term problem of interest rates, and some leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives have questioned the long-term effectiveness of this solution.

“The bill helps reduce costs to students and families, but it does not solve the long-term student debt crisis,” said bill proponent Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., in a press release.

UC officials and students also worry that loan debt may become unsustainable when economic conditions improve and Treasury bill rates start to increase.

“In the long term, accounting for inflation, loans will become more expensive for prospective Berkeley students,” said Rachelle Feldman, director of the UC Berkeley Financial Aid and Scholarships Office.

She suggested variable interest-rate loans and income-sensitive repayment programs as changes to the student aid program, as they would better adapt to changing economic conditions.

Alex Lee, a senior at UC Berkeley, has relied heavily on federal Stafford loans since he started college and will continue to do so. He said that he has no way of paying for college other than loans.

“I’m essentially at the mercy of the student loan system,” Lee said. “Once I get out, I’m pretty much screwed.”

Undergraduate loans for the coming year will drop to 3.86 percent, and graduate student rates will be 5.41 percent. PLUS loans, which are offered to graduate students and the parents of undergraduates, will drop to 6.41 percent. All of these rates will be lower than the current fixed rates of 6.8 percent for Stafford loans and 7.9 percent for PLUS loans.

The bill will also establish rate caps to prevent student loans from becoming too expensive — 8.25 percent for undergraduates, 9.5 percent for graduate students and 10.5 percent for PLUS loans.

Contact Dennis Vidal at dvidal@dailycal.org.

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Jasna Hodzic/Courtesy

A state appellate court ruled Tuesday that the University of California must disclose the names of all police officers who were involved in the Nov. 18, 2011, UC Davis pepper-spray incident.

The 1st District Court of Appeal, ruling in favor of the Los Angeles Times and The Sacramento Bee, contended that the Federated University Police Officers Association, citing confidentiality concerns, had failed to demonstrate that police officer identities were excludable from disclosure under the California Public Records Act.

“This a great victory for students who want to protest and have assurance that they won’t be brutalized,” said Thomas Burke, the attorney representing the newspapers.

The November 2011 incident, in which several UC Davis students were publicly pepper-sprayed by campus police, sparked national outrage over the accountability police face when dealing with student protesters. Students sued the university and reached a $1 million settlement in January.

The controversy began in April 2012 when a task force led by former California Supreme Court justice Cruz Reynoso released a report detailing the police’s misconduct. In the report, the task force conceded that campus police could have taken better steps to prevent “the objectively unreasonable decision to use pepper spray.”

The commission, however, refused to disclose the names of numerous police officers and only included the names of those directly involved, Lt. John Pike and then-campus police chief Annette Spicuzza.

The censorship followed an agreement between the UC Board of Regents and the FUPOA that the names would be kept confidential due to concerns about the police officers’ safety.

In May 2012, the LA Times and The Sacramento Bee filed a petition with the Alameda County Superior Court against the UC Regents to disclose the names.
At the Superior Court hearing, Burke argued that the FUPOA failed to cite any examples that police were harassed or threatened after the incident.

“Some of the police officers’ names had already been unofficially identified by various media sources, so when the issue came up in court, we argued that police officers would already have experienced harassment,” Burke said.

The appeals court ordered that the names be withheld for 40 days to allow the FUPOA to decide whether or not to appeal the decision.

“I feel that the court construed the confidentiality statutes too narrowly, and we’ll likely seek review in the California Supreme Court,” said Michael Morguess, attorney for the FUPOA.

Contact Dennis Vidal at dvidal@dailycal.org. Follow Dennis Vidal on Twitter @vidaldennis

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On July 18 at about 7 p.m., police responded to reports of multiple shots fired on the 1800 block of Derby Street near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Police then confirmed the victim was suffering from gunshot wounds. Berkeley Fire Department transported the victim to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to a press release by Berkeley Police Department.

BPD is urging anyone who has information on this homicide to please call the Homicide Detail at 510-981-5741 or its nonemergency number at 510-981-5900. Anonymous calls can be made to Bay Area Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

Contact Dennis Vidal at dvidal@dailycal.org.

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Changes to UC Regents Policy 7401 would extend the freedom of UC faculty and staff to freely critique policies adopted by the administration without fear of administrative discipline. The adoption comes amid a series of lawsuits that raise concerns about the limits of freedom of expression for public employees.

“There’s the issue that this policy revision will affect employer-employee relations, but I don’t think that’s a legitimate concern,” said UC President Mark Yudof of the decision.

Minor amendments also included revising the anti-discrimination policy to include “gender” and “gender expression” as well as members of all uniformed services among the prohibited types of discrimination in employment.

Susan Carlson, vice provost for academic personnel, presented the amendment to the regents on Thursday and argued that the revision protecting free speech is necessary to encourage faculty participation in governance of the UC system by ensuring protection under the First Amendment.

“Foundational policies are not often changed unless absolutely necessary,” Carlson said. “Faculty involvement in the governance of the UC is incredibly important to our public mission, and we’re ensuring that this policy change gives our employees the right to express their opinions towards university policy without fear of negative ramifications.”

The issue of free speech protection for government employees became a contentious issue in 2006, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Garcetti v. Ceballos, a case involving a Los Angeles district attorney, that the First Amendment does not prevent citizens from being disciplined for comments they make as public employees.

Joe Kiskis, vice chair of the Council of UC Faculty Associations, said that the decision did not present a problem for higher education until 2007, when UC Irvine professor Juan Hong brought up the issue in a 2007 U.S. District Court case.

In his lawsuit against university officials and the regents, Hong alleged that he had been denied a salary increase in 2004 due to his criticism of the hiring and promotion decisions within his department.

The District Court ruled in 2007 that Hong was not entitled to protection under the First Amendment because he made the comments as a public employee and not as a private citizen.

According to Kiskis, the court’s ruling in Hong’s appeal of the original decision left the question of the limits of academic expression unanswered. Before Hong’s appeal, Kiskis said faculty members believed they had the freedom to critique policies enacted by the university.

After the case, UC Davis professor Greg Pasternack, who chaired that campus’s committee of academic freedom, set out to revise university policy by proposing changes to the code of conduct. However, after the issue became entangled in several committees for the past two years, Pasternack lost track of his proposition and was surprised to hear about the regents’ decision.

“This is the greatest expansion of academic freedom made in a long time,” Pasternack said.

Contact Dennis Vidal at dvidal@dailycal.org. Follow Dennis Vidal on Twitter @vidaldennis.

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J. Hannah Lee/Staff

The UC Berkeley Recreational Sports Facility will implement a one-time fee increase of $3 per month for all nonstudent members starting Sept. 1.

RSF officials say fee hikes are necessary, as the cost of running programs and facilities has risen considerably in several years, but membership fees have not increased.

UC Berkeley faculty and staff fees will increase annually from $420 per year to $456 per year. Community members, defined as people who are not associated with the university, will see their annual fees increase from $744 to $780, and fees for alumni will rise from $648 to $684 per year.

For community members, the fee increase will not affect short-term memberships, day passes or the Cal Star Program, a membership plan for individuals with disabilities. The $10 semester membership fee UC Berkeley students pay to use the facility will also not increase.

“This increase is needed to offset rising costs of current operations,” said director of recreational sports Mike Weinberger, who cited a mandated 2 percent raise for all nonunionized university employees, implemented by former chancellor Robert Birgeneau in March. He said that benefits and salaries are the facility’s largest expenses.

“Cal Rec Sports does not have the power to shift the costs to currently enrolled students,” Weinberger said. “The only (guaranteed) funding we get from the university comes from campus-based fees, so we have to come up with the money elsewhere.”

Enrolled students pay compulsory campus-based fees, which are used to fund the university’s programs and facilities and cannot be changed without a student government referendum. Referendums passed in 1981 and 2006 authorized some of the fees currently funding RSF operations.

Weinberger added that a membership fee increase was planned even if a referendum from earlier this year, the health and wellness referendum, had gone into effect. The referendum would have increased student fees by $40 per semester to help fund the RSF but was nullified in May.

Ted Friedman, a Berkeley resident who has been using RSF for 15 years, said the RSF’s new price, when compared to other gyms in the area, is still a bargain.

“This is one of the best gyms in the Bay Area, and if there’s a need to keep it running, I’m OK with paying a little extra,” Friedman said.

Contact Dennis Vidal at dvidal@dailycal.org.

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According to an announcement by the Jacobs School on Monday, Pisano will succeed Frieder Seible, a professor of mechanical engineering at UC San Diego, who served as dean for 10 years before retiring in April.

“Personally, I see San Diego as a very good fit, and it’s very exciting to be offered a dean position,” Pisano said. “I’ve been very happy with my years at Berkeley, but I’ve been offered this opportunity, and this is a big thing that I’ve got to do.”

As dean, Pisano will oversee faculty appointments for all engineering departments and implement policies aiming to promote high academic standards for UC San Diego’s teaching and research.

S. Shankar Sastry, dean of the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley and a longtime colleague of Pisano, says that Pisano’s commitment to education will be invaluable to UC San Diego.

“To be a dean requires academic credentials, personal substance and a very distinguished record of research,” Sastry said. “His years of experience in academic management make him a perfect candidate to oversee the school.”

During his time at UC Berkeley, Pisano served as the chair of the campus department of mechanical engineering, director of the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, director of the Electronics Research Laboratory and acting dean of the College of Engineering. Outside of the UC Berkeley campus, Pisano served a two-year federal appointment as a project manager for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

“It’s a great win for San Diego and a great loss for UC Berkeley,” said mechanical engineering professor Tarek Zohdi, a longtime friend of Pisano.

Pisano’s research, including his work on miniaturized sensors for harsh environments, involves applicable uses for microelectromechanical systems. As dean, he hopes to make changes to UC San Diego’s engineering curriculum that will give students a greater appreciation for their prerequisite classes.

Neel Rane, a UC Berkeley junior who took Pisano’s advanced prototyping class, said Pisano was an enthusiastic professor and always made class enjoyable. Through Pisano’s contacts, Rane’s class got the rare opportunity to work with Motorola Mobility in a rapid prototyping contest.

“During the prototyping process, Pisano would help us test our prototypes and give us input,”  Rane said. “This way, class didn’t just involve sitting around listening to him give a lecture.”

Pisano will continue to teach and research as dean, though on a much smaller scale.

“I love Berkeley and will always consider myself a Berkeleyan, but San Diego has given me an opportunity that I cannot ignore,” Pisano said. “San Diego engineering’s vision for its research to further the public good is a perfect fit for me and my work.”

Contact Dennis Vidal at dvidal@dailycal.org.

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Gabrianna Dumaguin/File

The University of California system saw an increase of about 1,263 in undergraduate students accepting admission offers in this year’s freshman class, with proportions of out-of-state and international students planning to enroll also increasing.

The total number of admitted freshman students stating intent to register in the UC system was 44,016 this year. Of those students, the percentage who are California residents dropped by 2.8 percent from last year’s freshman class, while SIRs from international and out-of-state students increased from 15.5 percent of all students planning to enroll to 18.3 percent for fall 2013.

“The admissions department plans for these things, and our hope was to increase our enrollment this year,” said Dianne Klein, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, about the total increase of SIRs. Klein said that enrollment data will change by fall and that SIR data is only a “snapshot” of the final numbers. “For now, the SIR statistics are preliminary, so our results aren’t concrete enough to determine what effect the (statistics) will have on the UC system,” she said.

The universitywide SIR statistics include guaranteed offers from UC Merced, which were offered to freshmen who met admissions requirements but were not originally admitted to the campus of their choice.

The percentage of out-of-state and international admitted freshmen planning to enroll at UC Santa Cruz more than doubled compared to last year — the biggest change in this statistic across the UC campuses. UC Santa Cruz also had the largest percent decrease in California resident SIRs over last year, with 6.6 percent fewer California resident students submitting SIRs.

The trend of a decreasing percentage of in-state SIRs follows the long debate about the increasing number of international and out-of-state students within the UC system. However, a summary released by the university, along with the data, supports this increase in nonresident enrollment, citing that “nonresidents pay higher tuition, thus self-funding the cost of their education, and helping support increases in course offerings and faculty hiring, which benefit all students.”

UC Berkeley SIRs totaled 5,979 students this year, an increase of 614 students from the campus’s 2012 numbers. The raw number of admitted freshmen planning to enroll at UC Berkeley in all residential categories increased, including California residents, with 115 more state residents planning to enroll than last year.

However, despite this increase in raw numbers, the percentage of admitted freshmen planning to enroll at UC Berkeley who are California residents decreased by 5.9 percent from last year. The percentage of out-of-state admitted freshmen planning to enroll at UC Berkeley increased by 1.6 percent, and international students planning to enroll went up by 4.3 percent from the year before.

Contact Dennis Vidal at dvidal@dailycal.org.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that percentage of California residents who are planning enroll as freshmen at the UC this fall dropped by 2.8 percent from last year’s freshman class. In fact, the percentage dropped by 2.8 percentage points.

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