CalSERVE Elections Coordinator Anais LaVoie filed five charges against Mecklai in April for distribution of campaign literature in residence halls, solicitation in the dining commons and explicit disobedience of residence hall staff directives.

LaVoie accused Mecklai of cheating, citing that the “margin of victory in her election can plausibly be enumerated as the number of votes gained through illegal campaigning.”

Four of the five petitions against Mecklai were dismissed by the council due to insufficient evidence and witness testimonies. The council then reviewed Mecklai in a hearing on May 2 for one charge of solicitation in the dining commons of a resident hall and evaluated an oral and written testimony from resident assistant Jasmine Verret.

According to the opinion, the written testimony from Verret cited Mecklai “not campaigning but definitely soliciting” multiple tables of students in Cafe 3.

However, while the written testimony suggested multiple incidents of solicitation, Verret’s oral testimony only referenced one specific incident, and the council therefore ruled that the witness’s collective testimony did not meet “the standard of clear and convincing evidence.”

The council chose to evaluate case evidence individually rather than holistically because four of the charges were dismissed before the hearing. Although the evidence presented appeared to “establish a pattern of intent,” the council ultimately ruled that the evidence against Mecklai was insufficient in charging her and found her not guilty on all five charges.

If the council had taken a holistic approach, the opinion states that there would have been “sufficient evidence and testimony to charge (Mecklai) with at least, but not limited to one censure.”

“While I’m disappointed that we lost the case by such a close ruling of 5 to 3, I’m confident that the act of pursuing elections violations this year will clean up elections in the future,” LaVoie said in an email.

Mecklai said she felt relieved by the results of the trial.

“I’m glad it’s over, and I’m trying to keep my head up,” Mecklai said. “I’ve always said that I’m not a partisan person, and I want to maintain that and not let this affect that going forward.”

LaVoie v Mecklai Official Judicial Council Direct Judgment (PDF)

LaVoie v Mecklai Official Judicial Council Direct Judgment (Text)

Contact Jacob Brown at jbrown@dailycal.org. Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org

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The event was organized by the ASUC Office of the President in conjunction with ASUC senators Sadia Saifuddin, Rosemary Hua and Megan Majd. In order to raise awareness of such crimes on campus, victims of sexual assault shared their stories.

According to a Berkeley Police Department crime report, there were 39 reported incidents of sexual assault in the city of Berkeley in 2012, up from 20 incidents in 2011.

“(Sexual assault) is something that doesn’t discriminate against color or gender,” Saifuddin said. “It’s something that happens to a lot of people.”

According to Bay Area Women Against Rape training coordinator Agustina Perez, 85 percent of sexual assaults are committed by a person whom the victim knows, and only one in 10 victims report the crime.

Student attendees included members of the campus sorority system and the ASUC. The workshop was facilitated by UCPD, University Health Services and BAWAR.

“(Events like Fight Back) allow survivors of sexual assault who are silenced to have a voice,” Hua said. “But it also allows for facetime between UCPD and students (and) facilities a discussion.”

Speakers at the event noted the importance of discussing sexual assault in an open and safe environment.

“The reason why sexual violence is rising at such alarming rates is because people don’t talk about it,” Perez said. “Anything that will get people to talk and create safe spaces is a step in the right direction.”

Community leaders provided attendees with resources to defend themselves against attack.

During the workshop, UCPD officers offered a pepper spray demonstration as well as basic self-defense techniques. Officers said one of the most basic but useful techniques in the case of an assault is to shout for help. The workshop also offered free pepper spray to participants.

“There is nothing that anyone can do that warrants (or) causes rape,” Perez said during her presentation. “The only person responsible for rape is the one committing it.”

Director and Title IX Officer Denise Oldman of the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination said that it is important to know that there are allies in the community for sexual assault victims. She addressed the various resources available to students, including medical, psychological and emotional health services, residential needs and prevention help.

Members of the ASUC and campus community alike said they hope events like Fight Back will educate the students that attended and continue to raise awareness about sexual assault and violence within the UC Berkeley community.

“I feel like it’s important to have events that raise awareness about how critical an issue (sexual violence is) both on campus and in general,” said sophomore Taylor Fugere, who is a member of Greeks Against Sexual Assault and involved in the Gender Equity Resource Center.

UCPD Officer Brendan Tinney said he hopes to see more involvement with sexual assault prevention from other groups on campus, such as fraternities.

“I think there’s some interest specifically in the part of fraternities, at least some of them,” Tinney said. “But I’m waiting for them to reach out. You don’t (only) teach the group that’s interested in the topic.”

Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that there had been 39 incidents of sexual assault on the UC Berkeley campus this year, a 95 percent increase from 19 incidents the previous year. In fact, there were 39 reported incidents of sexual assault in the city of Berkeley in 2012, up from 20 incidents in 2011.

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The bill, SB 213, is sponsored by Student Action Senator Rosemary Hua and Student Action Senator-elect Lauren Week and will help dance groups on campus find spaces to practice. Hua, a dancer herself, hopes the bill will raise awareness of the issue.

“Hopefully, with this bill we’re showing the school that there’s a huge need (for practice space),” Hua said. “Our community is suffering.”

According to Hua, there are more than 15 dance groups on campus, encompassing approximately 600 students. Primarily, these groups hold practice on Lower Sproul, in front of Haas Pavilion and in Hearst Gym.

However, scheduling time for the spaces in Hearst Gym is often complicated, said Week, and with Lower Sproul closing this year for construction, available dance spaces will be increasingly difficult to find.

“Currently, dance groups have been forced to dance in the parking structures underneath the RSF and Underhill Field, which is dirty and unsafe, especially at night when most of our groups practice,” said Week in an email. “This is why SB 213 is so crucial.”

Hua negotiated a $33,000 contract with Recreational Sports Director Michael Weinberger to open up Strawberry Canyon Recreational Area for dancers during the current school year.

Weinberger said that working with the ASUC has been a great experience and that Rec Sports would be willing to continue working with the dance community as long as the ASUC can continue to supply funding.

“We’re very much willing to continue (the contract),” Weinberger said. “We just need to cover staffing. That’s where the money is going.”

Despite the addition of Strawberry Canyon, some members of the dance community still expressed concern about finding sufficient practice spaces. Although Strawberry Canyon has been helpful in alleviating the problem of limited space, Berkeley Ballroom member Caitlyn Keith said it can be difficult and inconvenient for larger dance groups to find transportation to Strawberry Canyon, and space is still limited for all dance groups.

Hua said she hopes the bill and the agreement made with Rec Sports will foster a positive relationship between the campus and the dance community.

“I’m hoping that this bill will also show the Rec Center that we’re thankful for what’s happening,” Hua said.

SB 213 will be discussed in the senate’s external committee on Monday then voted on during Wednesday’s senate meeting.

Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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Despite consistently being ranked as one of the best overall undergraduate business programs in the nation, new rankings from Businessweek place the Haas School of Business at a low 57 out of 124 on return on investment, or ROI. The rankings, released Friday, rate private and public undergraduate business programs by comparing median starting salaries of graduates to the rate of annual tuition for each school.

While UC Berkeley’s undergraduate business program was ranked 11th overall by Businessweek and third overall by US News, the programs gracing the top 10 for ROI include those at schools like the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Brigham Young University in Utah.

According to the report, the Haas undergraduate program is ranked low for return on investment due to an exceptionally high tuition rate despite being part of a public institution. UC Berkeley’s undergraduate tuition rate is the fourth-highest for a public university at $14,985 per year, the report states.

UC Berkeley graduates of Haas earned $4 per tuition dollar spent, which is lower than the average amount earned by graduates of other public universities, which was $5.99, according to the report.

This, however, does not seem to be much of a deterrent for many Haas students set to graduate in the coming weeks.

“Paying student loans is definitely concerning,” said graduating Haas senior Richard Tran. “But I’m fortunate enough to have found a job.”

Additionally, though tuition may be a high price to pay, many undergraduate Haas students said they were reassured by the connections, networking and recruitment opportunities that Haas has to offer.

“For most Haas graduating seniors, paying off tuition is not a problem, since most graduate with a job,” said graduating Haas senior Elaine Huang.

The median starting salary for Haas graduates is $60,000, according to Pamela Tom, the school’s business media relations manager. Among the schools ranked by Businessweek for ROI, this is the fourth-highest starting salary for public school graduates and 11th overall.

“Employers view Haas as one of the finest in the country,” said campus Career Center Director Tom Devlin. “Therefore, the average salary of Haas bachelor graduates is always within the top 10 of undergraduate schools.”

Devlin also stated that the average salary for Haas graduates has remained consistently high for many years.

“These numbers reflect what employers think and what employers are willing to pay for our graduates,” Devlin said.

Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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BAMN leaders, UC Berkeley students and high school seniors spoke against Proposition 209, which prohibits state institutions, including the UC system, from considering race, sex or ethnicity in employment or enrollment, according to BAMN attorney Ronald Cruz.

“There are so many people like me, minorities, Latinos, African Americans who (have been) fighting the odds their whole life,” said Bianca Woodward, a high school senior who is currently appealing her rejection from the university. “Denying them admission to a school like UC Berkeley is to deny themselves and the community and school the possibility to foster a new generation of leaders who more accurately represent the community.”

Cruz claims that since Prop. 209 passed in 1996, there has been a significant drop in Hispanic, black and American Indian students being admitted to UC Berkeley. Yvette Felarca, a coordinator for BAMN in Northern California, said she hopes activists’ efforts will help change the admission process for the UC system and that the university will double admission numbers for underrepresented minority students.

“One of the things that is clearly a challenge here is that we don’t have an opportunity to know the race or ethnicity or gender as we read the applications,” said Amy Jarich, UC Berkeley’s assistant vice chancellor and director of undergraduate admissions. “We have a long way to go, so we need to keep working with our partners.”

California freshman applicants admitted to UC Berkeley for fall 2013 have an ethnic composition that is nearly identical to those of previous years, even as campus groups and the university continue to push for greater minority inclusion.

While black, Hispanic and American Indian people constituted 32.1 percent of California residents applying to UC Berkeley, they make up 22 percent of admitted students, according to data released by the UC Office of the President last week. Last year, the same groups made up 30.9 percent of the resident applicant pool and saw comparable admissions numbers.

This is the second year BAMN has organized to support affirmative action. According to Felarca, the organization helped 15 minority students gain admission to the university after they appealed.

“(This demonstration) shows the power of the movement,” said high school senior Sidney Adebayo, who is appealing his rejection. “When the admission office makes their decision on all the many thousands of students, they make it based on a piece of paper, but they really don’t know the student very well. They don’t even know his personality (or) what he’s accomplished.”

Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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In a statement explaining his decision, Landgraf emphasized that he did not support the bill and that it failed to contribute to any constructive dialogue on the issue. However, he ultimately decided not to veto the bill because he felt doing so would only intensify the conflict and lengthen the healing process for the community.

“I think people on both sides may disagree with my decision,” Landgraf said. “I think it’s the best decision for the campus as a whole, and both communities need to reconsider their perspectives on this issue and reconsider the value of having a 10-hour-long senate meeting that tears communities apart.”

In an interview with The Daily Californian’s Senior Editorial Board, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said he personally witnessed the emotional turmoil Landgraf underwent prior to making his decision.

“I met with Connor last night, late in the afternoon, mostly just to listen to him.” Birgeneau said. “He was really, really upset, justifiably so, given the threats against his person. I just tried to console him and give him advice.”

Before announcing his decision, Landgraf said he had been verbally assaulted and threatened. He said he has only received a few angry emails since his announcement was made.

Independent Senator Sadia Saifuddin, a co-sponsor of SB 160, said she commended Landgraf for respecting the senate’s decision.

“This issue is clearly one that affects countless students,” Saifuddin said in an email. “But I truly believe it is possible to build bridges in the wake of the passage of the bill.”

Although Landgraf said he sought to hasten the campus’s healing process with his decision, many on both sides of the issue say they feel even more uneasy following his announcement.

While members of the Jewish community acknowledged the difficulty of Landgraf’s position, many said they are disappointed by his decision. Daphna Torbati, president of the campus Jewish Student Union, said she feels that Landgraf’s decision bolsters a one-sided narrative and silences the pro-Israeli voice.

“Regardless of the veto action, much of the damage has already been done,” Torbati said in an email. “Our community is very hurt and disappointed about the sheer amount of anti-semitic and anti-Israel comments made on the senate floor last week.”

Many pro-divestment students said they remain concerned about the climate on campus and that they continue to feel uneasy about expressing their views. Two weeks before the vote occurred, one pro-divestment student was assaulted on campus, allegedly for saying he believed that Israel was an apartheid state.

“The repression is so severe that we have to fear for our physical safety,” said the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine in a statement. “Our physical safety and our right to open debate are at risk.”

SJP also noted that its members feel that their advocacy has been mislabeled by opponents as hate speech.

ASUC President-elect DeeJay Pepito emphasized that all communities need to remain respectful of opposing opinions on this complex issue.

“As students, we need to take responsibility for our own actions,” Pepito said. “Poor campus climate is not determined by a piece of legislation that the senate passes. Poor campus climate is perpetuated by students using hurtful words and resorting to violent threats towards one another.”

Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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The selection process for a new superintendent, which began in December 2011, reopened in February this year when previous finalist Edmond Heatley dropped his candidacy following the rise of controversy surrounding his stance against gay marriage. Evans was chosen after the district evaluated more than 70 possible candidates, according to a district press release Friday.

Evans was a favored candidate due to his extensive experience in dealing with a diverse set of students from different income levels and ethnicities, according to Karen Hemphill, president of the school board.

“Dr. Evans really encompasses the experiences, skills, and values that our community has stressed as being important in our new superintendent,” Hemphill said in an email.

Evans began his career nearly 26 years ago, working as a teacher and administrator in school districts in San Diego, East Palo Alto, Oakland and Compton before becoming superintendent of Hayward Unified School District, according to the Hayward Education Foundation website.

“I’ve had a very positive experience working with Superintendent Evans,” said Principal Ariel Dolowich of Anthony Ochoa Middle School in Hayward. “He has brought a level of accountability and reorganization to the district.”

During Evans’ tenure, Dolowich and Anthony Ochoa staff, with support from the district, saw an increase in the school’s Academic Performance Index by 86 points — a record for the school, Dolowich said.

With an emphasis on rigor, responsibility and results, Evans is noted for his achievements in developing a community-based, data-driven academic achievement plan for African American students. The school board hopes that with his experience, Evans will be able to help Berkeley with similar achievement gap issues, Hemphill said. The 2020 Vision project is one of the most visible Berkeley efforts to address the issue.

Nevertheless, some members of the community are cautious about Evans’ candidacy but are eager to see what he might bring to the superintendent position.

“I am cautiously optimistic about his selection,” said Berkeley PTA Council President Tom Killilea in an email. “The important point will be how he approaches the Berkeley community, which can be a challenge on its own.”

Board members, teachers, union representatives, staff and community members will all attend a site visit Friday, according to Hemphill, to observe Evans in his current position in Hayward.
“It’s an opportunity for the board to bring in the various stakeholders in our district to do final vetting of the candidate,” Hemphill said.

After the site visit, the board will continue the finalization process. It will create an employment agreement and vote on a final contract for Evans. If all goes well, Evans will be hired and assume the superintendent position on July 1.

Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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Cal Day, for prospective students and parents, will be held this Saturday, April 20, a day also known in marijuana culture as 4/20. Some members of the UC Berkeley community are concerned that the cultural connotations of 4/20, often associated with smoking marijuana, might negatively affect the impression of the UC Berkeley community as a whole to prospective families and reiterate the negative stereotypes associated with Berkeley and drug culture.

According to The Huffington Post, the term “4/20” was allegedly first used by a group of teenagers in the 1970s who would regularly meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke weed.

Today, 4/20 can refer to both the date of April 20 and the time of day and has evolved into an unofficial holiday in which smokers may gather and consume marijuana in a celebratory fashion.

ASUC Senator Mihir Deo expressed concern that the university did not have enough foresight about the cultural connotations of holding Cal Day on 4/20.

“When prospective parents come here, they’ll see this part of Berkeley that doesn’t necessarily define what Berkeley is about,” Deo said. “I think you’ll see some parents who initially wanted their children to go to Berkeley might change their minds.”

According to UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof, this is not the first time Cal Day has been held on 4/20. The last time Cal Day was held on 4/20 was 2002.

In general, Cal Day is strategically held on either the second or third Saturday of April, between Easter and the end of the month, when SIR agreements are due for incoming freshmen.

Despite the 4/20 hype among students, Mogulof trusts that the students of UC Berkeley will make responsible decisions on Saturday. According to both campus administrators and UCPD, there are currently no plans or special procedures in place to monitor marijuana consumption on campus on 4/20, nor have there ever been.

“We will address any marijuana-related activity as appropriate,” said Lt. Eric Tejada.

UCPD Officer Marco Ruiz reiterated Tejada’s point that UCPD does not usually take any extra precautionary measures to monitor students on campus on 4/20. In fact, according to Ruiz, UCPD often sends additional forces to UC Santa Cruz on 4/20 to monitor the annual “Smoke Out.”

Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org

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More than 300 ambitious young entrepreneurs and seasoned businesspeople alike gathered Thursday at Hotel Shattuck for Innovate@Berkeley, an event that showcased some of Berkeley’s startups and featured a panel of prominent speakers.

Organized by UC Berkeley undergraduate business fraternity Alpha Epsilon Zeta, the event consisted of a startup expo showcasing 26 different startup companies, a speaker panel and a pitch competition, during which high-profile judges selected five startups to present their work on stage to compete for cash prizes and other awards from sponsors.

UC Berkeley sophomore Sameen Karim, a computer science major who founded his own startup, Eventable, and organized the event, hopes that events such as Innovate@Berkeley will bring more attention to the startup community in Berkeley.

“Everyone always focuses on Stanford or MIT,” Karim said. “Berkeley is just a sleeping giant … We’re trying to bring awareness to the fact that Berkeley is pumping out some really high-quality companies.”

The event, however, also drew in significant city support. The Berkeley Startup Cluster, a sponsor of the event, helped student organizers connect with prominent individuals like publicists, judges and speakers, according to Jennifer Cogley, the sustainable business coordinator in the city of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development.

“The fact that (the event) was produced by students is significant,” Cogley said. “The level of energy and creativity was beyond what we’ve seen before.”

The Berkeley Startup Cluster consists of a committee of representatives from the city of Berkeley, the Downtown Berkeley Association, the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce and UC Berkeley, all of whom work in collaboration to develop and support the startup community in the Berkeley area.

Additionally, Michael Cohen, UC Berkeley’s director of innovation ecosystem development, hopes that by sponsoring events like Innovate@Berkeley, Berkeley will develop into a prominent startup community.

“One of our objectives (at Berkeley Startup Cluster) is to make UC Berkeley and Downtown Berkeley a world-class cluster of high-tech-oriented companies,” Cohen said.

Although the event was not necessarily the first of its kind, Innovate@Berkeley was one of the largest forums to bring a variety of different startups together, according to Jessica Lee, marketing manager at Dorsey & Whitney LLP, which also helped sponsor the event.

The event is just one of many initiatives in the Berkeley area to support and build the startup community, which have also included SkyDeck, NextSpace and the hackerspace that recently opened in Cory Hall.

“(Startups are) a great source of jobs,” Cogley said. “A lot of students now are making their own businesses once they graduate, and we’d rather have them do that (in Berkeley) than somewhere else.”

Eventually, Alpha Epsilon Zeta hopes to expand the number of companies featured in the expo and make Innovate@Berkeley an annual event.

Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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In a study entitled “I Think, Therefore I Am,” which was announced earlier this month, professor John Chuang of the School of Information, along with three UC Berkeley students, found that brain waves can be used to differentiate individuals and therefore establish a means of security authentication in the form of a “passthought” rather than a traditional password.

“You can think of your favorite player in a soccer game and his stance, or you can think of the most delicious hamburger you’ve ever eaten,” said School of Information graduate student Charles Wang, who worked on the study. “And then the system will reboot itself, and you’ll be authenticated. I think that’s wonderful.”

Though Chuang does not believe that brainwave authentication will completely replace traditional text passwords, he states that it is the likely next step in computer security and that the use of EEG brainwave sensors and other biometric methods will likely develop quickly as further research is conducted.

“I think we have demonstrated that (brainwave authentication) works, and therefore it is worthwhile to pursue further,” Chuang said.

In addition to passthoughts, which are specific memories, the researchers explored other mental tasks, such as blinking, breathing, moving fingers, viewing certain colors, thinking of sports and singing a song in one’s head. Their findings showed that brainwave patterns remain distinct from individual to individual, regardless of the mental task.

“Even if we all sing the same song in the same way, maybe there’s still something fundamentally different about my brainwave patterns from yours that we can distinguish,” Chuang said.

Though Chuang’s work builds upon previous studies in the field, his is the first to use a consumer-grade NeuroSky brainwave sensor, a single-channel EEG reader. Previous studies have traditionally relied on multichannel EEG readers instead.

“Their work looks very promising,” said Doug Tygar, a professor of computer science and information management at UC Berkeley. “I think the study is very interesting and really opens new doors in research.”

The initial study displays the possibility for thoughts and brain waves to be the security tools of the future. Not only does the study show that it is possible, but it also demonstrates that this kind of technology can potentially be easy to use and accessible to the average person.

“We don’t have to sacrifice usability for security,” said Hamilton Nguyen, an undergraduate senior studying electrical engineering and computer sciences who contributed to the study. “You can have a secure system that’s (also) easy to use.”

Though future research is needed before brainwave authentication can be widely implemented, a number of issues brought up in the study must be further investigated, researchers say.

For one, researchers need to develop faster and simpler ways to establish user brainwave profiles that can be easily applied to the larger population.

Still, the potential for growth is large. Both Chuang and Wang discussed the potential advantage of brainwave authentication in wearable computers, such as Google Glass.

Although voice recognition and other more traditional biometric methods for computer security are more readily available, Chuang is convinced that EEG sensors and brainwave authentication could potentially be the next step.

“When we go to mobile devices and wearable computers, I think there’s a great application for brainwave authentication,” Chuang said. “It’s intuitive and something that’s not awkward to perform while walking down the street.”

Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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