Kore Chan/File

An ASUC Senate bill introduced Wednesday criticizes the UC Berkeley administration’s decision to hold the majority of classes on Oct. 1 after an explosion left most of campus without power the previous evening.

The bill, authored by Independent Campaign for Common Sense Senator Solomon Nwoche, calls on administrators to promptly inform students of class cancellations after emergencies. The bill will be discussed at an ASUC Senate committee meeting Monday night.

After an explosion near California Hall on the evening of Sept. 30, electrical crews worked through the night to bring power back to campus buildings.

At 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 1, campus officials notified students, faculty and staff that power had been restored to all but 11 buildings, including Dwinelle Hall.

Classes took place as normal in all buildings except those 11, to the dismay of many students who felt they had been inconvenienced by power outages in several campus residence halls the night before.

“Even best-case scenario, let’s say your assignment didn’t have any technology component — you were stuck reading in the dark,” Nwoche said regarding students living in the residence halls.

The bill, SB 27, lambastes the campus’s choice to hold most classes as usual, calling it an “irrational decision,” but also lauds Chancellor Nicholas Dirks’ acknowledgement that there was a lack of communication from campus administrators after the incident.

The bill’s text suggests implementing a campus policy whereby administrators inform students of class cancellations before 1 a.m. after an emergency. Nwoche said he would like the bill’s language to be amended to request that the announcement come within a seven- to eight-hour window after an emergency, with classes being automatically canceled after that time.

Claire Holmes, associate vice chancellor for public affairs, explained the challenges of pinning down parameters for campus emergency response.

“It is hard to dictate emergency situations because they are unpredictable and constantly evolving,” she said. Holmes does, however, agree that students and staff ought to be given as much notice as possible of class cancellations.

Both Student Action Senator Sahil Pandya and SQUELCH! Senator Grant Fineman support having a discussion about the campus’s response after the incident, but said they remain uncertain about the text of the bill itself.

“The bill comes from a very good place,” Fineman said. “It’s important in a big disaster to get information out to students quickly and efficiently, but I do understand that the administration was dealing with a lot of moving parts.”

CalSERVE Senator Briana Mullen said she would not vote for the current iteration of the bill.

“We need to be smart about when we use bills,” Mullen said. “If we don’t make policy in tandem with administrators, they are not going to respect it.”

ASUC President DeeJay Pepito said she plans to work with students and administrators to review campus outreach during emergency situations.

“The process is ongoing and continuously improving,” Pepito said in a text message forwarded from her chief of staff, Austin Pritzkat.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service determined Thursday evening that plans put forth by Foster Farms to immediately change its slaughtering and processing practices were sufficient to avoid shuttering the facilities.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 213 of the 278 reports of salmonella contraction during the outbreak came from California. The Food Safety and Inspection Service’s investigation began July 1, but some cases were reported as early as March. While the 42 percent hospitalization rate is double that of typical salmonella outbreaks, according to the CDC, there have been no reported deaths associated with the outbreak.

Dr. Tomas Aragon, the director of the Center for Infectious Diseases and Emergency Readiness at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, said he was concerned by the relatively high rate of hospitalization for afflicted individuals.

Aragon speculated that this particular strain — or strains — is more pathogenic than typical ones, given that salmonella is usually self-limiting and that individuals with the infection usually recover without antibiotics. The salmonella linked to Foster Farms facilities has been uncommonly resistant to antibiotic treatment, according to the CDC.

No recall has been issued for the chicken products, and the investigation is ongoing. Aaron Lavallee, an administrator with the Food Safety and Inspection Service, explained that discerning which products were tainted with salmonella is the missing piece of the puzzle. Officials have yet to pinpoint whether those products are chicken breasts, thighs or something else altogether.

In letters sent to Foster Farms’ president, Ron Foster, on Oct. 7, food safety inspectors said multiple noncompliance records had been filed against the company before and during the outbreak, from January through September, regarding fecal material on animal carcasses.

Foster Farms has made various attempts to reassure the public on its website. Foster personally apologized to those afflicted with the foodborne illness, and the company reminded consumers that all raw meat must be properly handled and cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees to ensure safe consumption.

Cal Dining said that it does not use any Foster Farms products and that students with meal plans have no need to worry about the outbreak. Stores that do not vend Foster Farms chicken include Andronico’s Community Markets and Trader Joe’s, among others.

Costco will continue to sell Foster Farms poultry, according to Craig Wilson, the corporation’s vice president of food safety and quality assurance. Safeway representatives could not be reached for comment.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org.

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Taylor A. Vega/Staff

City and county officials report that Alameda County’s single-use plastic bag ban has been successfully implemented without any major obstacles since it took effect in January.

While the ordinance requires businesses to keep exact records of paper bags purchased, store owners and employees report that the task has not been significantly detrimental to business operations. Many stores, including large chains and small businesses, report that the transition to phase out plastic bags was accompanied by either no inconveniences or only minor ones.

Richard Pilara, the store manager for Trader Joe’s Berkeley location, said customers were generally pleased with the move toward eliminating plastic waste. Mike Vubi, an employee at Fred’s Market on Telegraph Avenue, reported that some of his customers were initially frustrated about having to pay for their own bags, but he has since seen an increase in customers with reusable bags.

A shift supervisor at a CVS pharmacy on Shattuck Avenue said it was easy to obtain recyclable paper bags from the corporation. At Safeway, employees who work checkout registers simply punch in the number of paper bags sold, which is then itemized separately on the receipts. Customers themselves do the same at the self-checkout kiosks.

Only retailers who sell packaged food must comply with the ban, while restaurants, take-out food joints and certain charitable stores are exempt. Berkeley unsuccessfully attempted to expand the ban to include all nonrestaurant businesses at various times last year. The proposal would have increased the number of stores in the city affected by the law from 90 to 709.

So far, the Alameda County Waste Management Authority has not issued any fines or warnings to businesses, despite some initial complaints from businesses in January.

According to a ACWMA spokesperson Jeff Becerra, several hundred stores have been randomly checked by county and city enforcement officers to ensure retailers are following the ordinance’s protocol. As an extra measure, there is also a noncompliance-reporting form that customers can fill out online if they notice stores distributing single-use carry-out bags, failing to charge 10 cents for each paper bag or forgetting to itemize the number of paper bags on receipts.

Despite the ban on plastic bags in many businesses, environmental problems stemming from their continued use remain. Improperly recycled plastic bags can become trapped in machinery in processing plants meant to recycle bottles and cans, according to Sue Vang, a policy associate with Californians Against Waste.

In the coming months, the ACWMA plans to aggregate data from retailers to find out if single-use paper bag consumption is on the decline, Becerra said. With the 10-cent charge, county authorities hope customers make the permanent shift to reusable canvas grocery bags.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org.

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Taylor A. Vega/Staff

Following years of frustration with the city’s operation of their commercial space, business owners of the Telegraph Channing Mall finally demanded action from Berkeley City Council after they were hit with an unexpected tax.

Nestled between Durant Avenue and Channing Way, the mall is home to a dozen stores including Cheese ‘n’ Stuff, Joy’s Sportswear and Revolution Books. The shops are located in an alleyway just beneath the Telegraph Channing Parking Garage.

Without notice, business owners were assessed a possessory interest tax over the summer, which gave the merchants about a month to make a per-square footage payment to the city of Berkeley. Merchants such as Sam Juha, who has owned Cheese ‘n’ Stuff for 27 years, have never before paid this property tax to the city but have annually paid a similar tax to Alameda County.

Although the merchants had agreed to the tax in their leases, it was never previously assessed. The city’s decision to collect the tax spurred the business owners to gather at the Sept. 17 City Council meeting to demand immediate financial relief.

Charles Lee, who owns Michelle’s Yogurt and Sweets, explained to council members that the tax adds further economic burdens to his business. He said that businesses in the Telegraph Channing Mall were subject to a 4 percent annual rent increase that he deemed unfair when juxtaposed with only a 1 to 2 percent rate of inflation.

Lee said that he pays $3.40 in rent per square foot, while the vacant space adjacent to his was previously rented for less than half that figure. Kirstie Bennett, an owner of The Framer’s Workshop, said that the city’s decision to collect the possessory interest tax cost her more than $3,000.

“This particular problem of communication is really new,” Bennett said. “The problems in the mall are not.”

Without a designated property manager from the city, renovations and improvements to the mall come at a slow pace, according to Juha. In a report filed by Deputy City Manager William Rogers, the mall’s management was impacted by the resignation of a city employee within the Real Property Management unit. For now, the city is searching for a leasing and management agent for the mall, according to city spokesperson Matthai Chakko. It is considering contracting the management of the mall to a private entity.

Juha and Lee pointed to poor lighting, paint and signs in the alley that could be easily remedied with the help of a city official acting as the unit’s manager. Councilmember Kriss Worthington, whose district contains the mall, called the current management situation “chaotic.”

Worthington said that, at the request of Mayor Tom Bates, the mall’s business owners and Rogers will meet on Oct. 8 to smooth over these issues.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org.

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Jan Flatley-Feldman/Staff

Cindy Chang, the first female head team physician for Cal’s athletics program and a doctor at the Tang Center, was awarded one of sports medicine’s highest accolades at a ceremony Sept. 19.

Chang is the first woman to receive the Dr. Ernst Jokl Sports Medicine Award from the United States Sports Academy and joins  a group of past recipients including neurologist Roger Bannister, the first man to break a four-minute mile, and orthopedic surgeon Eric Heiden, a speed-skating champion.

Her selection was a “no-brainer,” given her many achievements in the field, said Duwayne Escobedo, USSA spokesperson.

Chang served as the first woman and first Asian American chief medical officer for Team USA in the 2012 Olympic Games. Prior to the games, she oversaw medical care at multiple Paralympic Games.

While Chang originally began her practice in family medicine, she was drawn to sports medicine due to her interest in musculoskeletal injuries and her lifetime passion for athletics.

In medical school, Chang tore her ACL in a basketball championship game and didn’t realize she was hurt until she went dancing to celebrate the team’s win. The injury, one of many she sustained while playing sports, furthered her interest in sports medicine.

As head team physician for Cal’s 27 Division I athletic teams from 1995 to 2008, Chang saw medical cases ranging from standard sprains to more unusual scenarios.

At a Louisiana football game, Chang said, she sutured a complex facial laceration in a dimly lit locker room. On another occasion, she drained a player’s abscess in a hotel bathtub the night before a game.

“She can all of a sudden run down the hall and say, ‘I want to show you this!’ ” said Harris Masket, a sports medicine doctor at the Tang Center, of Chang’s enthusiasm for her job. “She’ll show you this tiny little dislocation and say, ‘I’ve never seen this before.’ ”

Many of Chang’s colleagues recognize her as a leader in the field. When she first began her career, however, some older coaches questioned her ability to understand injuries that arose from male-dominated sports, Chang said.

“They would say, ‘You never played football. What do you know about football?’ ” she said. “In the end, you want to look for a good physician who understands injuries but also understands the psyche of a student-athlete and of coaches.”

Although Chang stepped down from the head team physician position, she still works as a doctor at the Tang Center.

In addition to her on-campus responsibilities, Chang works with the California Concussion Coalition, an organization she co-founded in 2012, and the California Interscholastic Federation’s Sports Medicine Committee.

Contact Chloee Weiner and Kimberly Veklerov at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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This summer in Berkeley — like any summer in Berkeley — a slew of campus buildings will undergo renovation, retrofitting and construction. With fewer students on campus, these three months are an opportune time for Capital Projects, UC Berkeley’s construction management team, to complete many tasks that would otherwise impede the daily flow of activities during the academic year. Almost all of Lower Sproul will be inaccessible in just a few weeks. Pedestrian pathways will be erected to circumvent construction sites. Ugly equipment all over campus will obstruct views that would have otherwise been bathed in beautiful, golden sunlight. Nonetheless, temporary unsightliness and inconvenience are necessary for the ultimate goal: campus improvement.

But this column is not about the pros and cons of infrastructural projects. It’s about personal construction — self-improvement. In the tradition of German philosophy, there is an idea of soul-searching and maturation that is referred to as Bildung. Inherent to Bildung is personal transformation. On an abstract level, this means cultivating selfhood — unfolding the manifold possibilities of identity.

You see, there is no better time than summertime to revamp your personality, mental outlook and skills. Forget spring. Renewal and growth are best suited for the long days of summer. The months between May and August are always slightly off-kilter from the rest of the year. Friends you might normally see every day are absent. Maybe living back at home feels strange. Maybe staying on campus feels even stranger. The heat in the air slows every moment, making you move sluggishly throughout the day. There are fewer obligations, fewer stresses, more tan lines. These mellow few months are thus the perfect time for some metaphoric construction.

Self-development is a never-ending process because no one is ever completely happy with who they are. The school year inhibits this process, sometimes delaying it for months. Academics hinder self-cultivation with projects and assignments and midterms, which force the process to go in a specific, predetermined direction.

Here is where self-construction comes into play. Those aspects of your personality that you find distasteful? Bulldoze them. Schedule the demolition for today. The passions that lie deep inside you? Lift them to the surface with a crane. Add layers. Add levels. Strip away the parts that no longer serve you. Become the edifice you have always wanted to be. And because this is a personal project, obviously, no trespassers are allowed. Spend some time alone each day to analyze what requires development. Work sites are never pretty, but the displeasing sight will be worth it in the end.

Construction must be done authentically. It is not enough to simply give the illusion of renovation for others to see. Poor workmanship will inevitably crumble as soon as you are shaken. And just as upgrading a building requires digging deep into its electric circuitry, delving into yourself requires a careful examination of your own mental wiring.

This self-examination process was one that I experienced myself a few summers ago as a high school student taking classes at UC Berkeley. It was a weird summer. Between not knowing anyone and being in strange Berkeleyland, I had a lot of time on my hands to explore the area and explore myself. At some point during those few months, I started understanding more about my identity. There is almost nothing more confusing than figuring out you are not the person you think you are. For the longest time, I had identified as straight. With a bit of introspection, I realized that my sexuality was far from hetero. This conclusion was not a result of me staring up at a majestic construction site. Neither was it one realized without denial, sadness and frustration. I didn’t figure out my whole identity that summer. I didn’t come close and probably never will. What I did gain, however, was the smallest semblance of self-awareness.

German philosophers thought that Bildung was all about self-education — reading books and engaging in intellectual conversations. I love those things. But cultivating selfhood contains another angle altogether: removal, relaxation and reflection. Discoveries about yourself are not usually made in the midst of activities or socializing but on a tranquil summer walk or just as you fall asleep for a midday nap. There’s no guarantee that you will realize your true sexuality like I did, but there’s a good chance you might learn more about yourself along the way.

Forgive my countless construction metaphors, but the parallels between humans and buildings are too great to ignore. Take façades, for example. A building’s pretty exterior indicates nothing about its interior strength, just as a person’s façade is irrelevant to her character. Like buildings, we require periodic reconstruction and re-examination. In the same way that a building quivers during an earthquake, we are prone to tremble under life-shaking circumstances. The key to not collapsing from it all is by building up your Bildung. With a steady internal structure, you can withstand anything.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org.

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I like to imagine that the graffiti I see around campus is the product of an underground, grassroots movement — one that is striving to accomplish a mysterious yet vital goal. Each time I see a piece of bathroom wall graffiti, it evokes this picture in my mind of how I think UC Berkeley might have looked fifty years ago. I like to imagine that the student body of the 1960s was wholly united, that each student threw himself “upon the gears and upon the wheel, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus,” as Mario Savio declared on the steps of Sproul Hall. I like to imagine that the graffiti of today is also fighting the “odious machine.”

I am probably wrong on both counts.

To start with the latter, not every student in 1964 was actively campaigning for free speech. While it is true that as many as 3,000 students protested together in October and November, many of them were likely fighting for different causes and many more were not involved whatsoever. Nonetheless, the idea that there could be one unified, collaborative movement is uplifting when surveying the current state of student activism, which is easily more diverse.

In regard to the first point about graffiti, I am wrong without a doubt. As much as I like to picture a student’s outstretched Sharpie as one of the microphones in front of Savio, most restroom graffitists are probably not seeking broader political freedoms. Instead, they write out confessions, pleas for advice, deeply held religious views or philosophical musings. Mirroring the activism of today, these sentiments are diverse.

But when I see a paraphrased Randy Pausch quote in the women’s restroom of Pimentel, “Brick walls aren’t there to keep you out. They’re there to give you a chance to show how much you want something” or the Doctor Who-inspired “Allons-y Allonso — We have a bathroom stall to take back!” in a recently cleaned Dwinelle restroom, I cannot help but think that Savio’s fire still burns inside students.

Herein lies the parallel. The graffiti of today and the protests of the past each represent the struggle to disseminate speech against those who wish to silence it. No matter how many arrests were made during the 60s sit-ins and protests, the voices never stopped. Likewise, no matter how many times bathroom partitions are scrubbed down, graffiti always resurfaces. In the case of the Evans Hall women’s bathroom, it’s even a competition, with some declaring, “First!” to show that they reached the blank stalls before anyone else.

Without diminishing the significance of the Free Speech Movement, graffiti has a uniqueness unto its own. It is inherently a dialogue among individuals, even those who do not actively write back responses. Simply reading a text already makes someone engaged in the conversation. Like all forms of communication, graffiti attempts to fish out an innermost thought and transform it into words or pictures. Sometimes, the words don’t come out quite right or the drawing is not how it was pictured in someone’s mind. Beneath a whale cartoon in the same Evans restroom, an artist wrote, “This came out slightly creepier than intended.”

As powerful as Savio’s words were, they might not have embodied the true essence of what he felt. As majestic as a whale might be in someone’s imagination, it inevitably loses its essence when given concrete form. The transformation of an idea into a verbalization is a challenge for everyone — from political activist to whale cartoonist. Although we might never understand what a person truly means in his mind pre-language or pre-art, we are united in the shared struggle to communicate such feelings. Speech has power not because it is perfect, but because it is the imperfect product of a common endeavor to make our thoughts known.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org or follow her on Twitter: @kveklerov.

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Months ago, on a bathroom wall in the Valley Life Sciences Building, I found faded red letters that posed the question, “Why do we allow our selves to live in a world of poisons that are not quite fatal?” For all the question’s profundity, restroom users were generally hesitant to reply. Just one response, “Good question!” was scribbled before the walls were thoroughly cleaned. Though the words are now scrubbed away, an echo of sorts has continued to resonate with me.

We allow ourselves to live in a world of poisons because, frankly, there is not much we can do about it. Case in point: My Unit 1 dorm, the building in which I write this article, is in “the presence of numerous substances known to the state to cause cancer,” according to the cheery Proposition 65 warning on the door. But I’m not planning on leaving the building’s shelter in protest or fear. To be constantly wary of disease-causing materials would mean dashing from place to place in a foolish attempt to outrun the inevitable. Soaking up the asbestos seems to be the less exhausting option here.

These days, everything seems to be a carcinogen — dormitories, cooked meat, cellphones, soy, even alcohol. The list is endless. No matter how ostensibly “good” or “natural” or “healthy” something is, it will probably kill you if used or ingested it in excess. Moderation is the purported hero of these battles, but how can a person balance his whole life when balancing a fall semester schedule is challenging enough?

The idea of simply succumbing to toxicity is tempting when facing the “world of poisons.” In Heideggerian philosophy, there is this notion that each second of our lives, we are coping with — dealing with — our state of being in the world. As we cope, says philosopher Martin Heidegger, we are “running ahead” toward our ultimate possibility: death. In other words, every moment is a struggle to be in tandem with the flow of people and events around us. Each of these moments brings us one step closer to the end.

Accepting that the world is slowly poisoning us, fatally or otherwise, is dismal. Here is an even drearier thought: What if the most pernicious of all these toxins were self-inflicted? What if, instead of the world poisoning us, we were the ones imposing such harm on ourselves?

In college, there is an underlying feeling that destructive habits are OK because they are temporary. Pulling a few consecutive all-nighters is innocuous enough because we can make up for the lack of sleep once the weekend rolls around. An hour at the gym can be sacrificed when the workload becomes too heavy. Ramen wins over home-cooked meals because it can save you a few extra minutes. Or maybe you’re the guy who sleeps enough, exercises daily and eats right, but as soon as Friday night hits, you drink so much you forget which way is home.

Everyone is guilty of self-destruction to some degree. A good friend of mine — a smoker — once bought this huge box of cigarettes in bulk. On each face of the boxes were warnings in bold, black ink. One read, “Smoking reduces blood flow and causes impotence.” None of the warnings bothered him. A cig was just a temporary stress relief. Quitting is always possible down the road.

We have no control over most of the toxic crap the world flings at us. The few lifestyle choices that we actually have a say in should give us the chance to enrich our health, to enrich every second of our lives. Sure, the little decisions might not amount to much. Extending your life just a few years longer doesn’t seem to be a grand award. And as for the present moment, it is also true that spending an hour at the gym will likely take away from time that could have otherwise been spent studying for that upcoming midterm. But living a healthy, wholesome life is not about the end result or the present need. It’s about making the slow march to death as enjoyable as it can possibly be.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org or follow her on Twitter: @kveklerov.

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Kimberly Veklerov/Staff

As 4/20 fast approaches, stoners everywhere are gathering together their beloved bongs, trusty lighters and favorite strains for an afternoon that will be unforgettable. Or, if smoking a particularly potent plant, forgettable. Set against the backdrop of recent ballot measure approvals in Washington and Colorado, this Saturday is the perfect occasion to consider where the marijuana industry is headed and the possible ramifications of such a direction. Is corporatization the future? Will a cleaner system subvert the sleazy underbelly of drug dealing?

In addition to the Memorial Glade scene for cannabis enthusiasts, the Bay Area will also play host to Hempcon 2013 in San Jose — a medical marijuana convention that I was initially made aware of via, you guessed it, a bathroom wall graffito. On the third floor women’s restroom of Wheeler Hall, in a stall closest to the entrance, “HEMPCON” is written in all caps. Probably just another doped up student promoting a little gathering, I assumed. How very wrong I was.

Just a few days after seeing the bathroom wall endorsement, I noticed hundreds of bright pink Hempcon advertisements posted on telephone polls throughout South Berkeley and Oakland as I drove to Santa Barbara. Later came the billboards. When driving back home through San Francisco, I saw the most costly and conspicuous one yet: a giant Hempcon billboard along highway 101, a prime location. Keep in mind these types of advertisement campaigns likely cost thousands of dollars, at the very least, even without televised or radio-broadcasted commercials.

So what exactly is Hempcon and where is all the money coming from?

The idea that there could be so much financial and professional event planning put into a weed convention clashes with the way many Berkeley students probably view marijuana. Smokers here might like to think that each leaf they buy is homegrown by a guy named Sunshine who talks to his plants every night and only uses organic, sustainable growing practices.

Hempcon, on the other hand, seems to be a slightly different narrative. Mega Productions is the corporate entity that is responsible for planning the event. According to Mega Productions’ website, its clients have included AT&T, Pepsi, State Farm Insurance, Microsoft and Ebay. The convention itself, which is touted as America’s largest medical marijuana exposition, will showcase exhibitors, a keynote speech and even musical entertainment. Legal advocates, medical practitioners and dispensary representatives should also be present.

There is this sentiment among many pot smokers that weed is one homogenous, counter-culture movement that champions camaraderie, peace and relaxation. Wherever you are, whatever strain of grass you’re smoking — it’s all one love connected by the beauty of getting baked.

Sure, marijuana might have some of those qualities. It certainly promotes love more than a plastic appliance from Walmart would. But just as it is important to know where your fruits and vegetables are coming from, it is also prudent to understand where your weed originates. Was it delivered from outside the U.S. in a giant illegal transport? Through which hands has it passed? If there are any negative externalities associated with the production or transportation of the good, then it is the responsibility of the consumer to make a sound decision based on such information. In the same way that a bathroom wall scribble can turn out to be part of a larger corporate event, what lies behind bud can be more than meets the bloodshot eye.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org or follow her on Twitter: @kveklerov.

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If writing on a wall is artistic expression, then desecrating a sign is protest. Take the two bathroom signs next to the Free Speech Movement Cafe: The woman’s head has been replaced by the symbol for anarchy and the man’s head is blued-out completely. Or take the men’s restroom sign on the ground floor of Evans. With only the peeling corners of a triangle left behind, someone begged the question in black Sharpie: “Men?”

These block figures — the square-shouldered man and the triangle dress-wearing woman — have been present in our minds since the earliest days of childhood. We were taught somewhere along the line that there exists a binary in the world and that it is used to separate people when using the restroom.

Fortunately, at UC Berkeley, male and female demarcations are constantly met with opposition. Others have written in the past about the need for greater gender-neutral and gender non-conforming spaces on campus, so it is a topic that will not be tackled here. At this point, such a need is not even an argument. The only question that remains is “when?”

What is equally important, I think, is casting away the notion that gender should be the main aspect of identity. Like the anarchist woman bathroom sign, your identity is so much more than your sex or gender. You might relate to the stereotypes of tomboy, effeminate guy, girly girl or butch male, but those designations signify nothing about who you are as a person. These labels mean less and less as time passes. Further, the sex a person is born with or without no longer impacts potential careers or positions in society to the same degree as it once did, at least in this country. All of this is good news.

But as gender loses its fundamental role in how we identify and how others see us, what do we have left to understand ourselves?

Simply put, our identity should be regarded as the sum of our actions. You aren’t the set of traits that you were born with. You are not a list of potentials or probabilities. You are whatever you choose to become — a notion that extends far past gender into the realms of ethnicity and class too. I’m not trying to take on the world with this idea. Heck, I’m sure millions before me have thought it. But regardless of its originality, the concept that we should consider ourselves born with a tabula rasa is key to progressive thinking. Identity that is nurtured, not inherent to our nature, is the identity of the future.

Some have trouble accepting this, usually in minor ways. This past weekend, during an apartment viewing that my two roommates and I attended, we had asked the landlord if parking were available. “Why do you have cars?” he asked, “It’s the boys who need the cars. Girls don’t drive cars.” He then went on to say that we must come from very spoiled families. I kid you not — this actually happened.

Such comments can easily be dismissed because he was an older man and maybe only half-serious. Annoying as it was, small battles are not the ones to be fought at a time like this. While this country might see him as being behind the times, the problems other nations face in terms of societal gender roles are much more pressing.

These days, at least in Berkeley, no one wears triangle dresses like the one worn by every women-designated bathroom sign. A shift in identifying ourselves by our actions and accomplishments — not the qualities we’re born with — is something to be celebrated where it exists and encouraged where it is nascent.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org or follow her on Twitter: @kveklerov.

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