ATU Local 192, which represents 1,800 bus drivers and mechanics, gave notice on Monday of its intention to strike, which could leave AC Transit’s 181,000 daily riders without transportation. Employees’ contracts expired in late June, and negotiations have been ongoing for several weeks.

According to Clarence Johnson, manager of media affairs at AC Transit, both parties have been working to come to a solution and avoid service interruption. As the third-largest public bus system in California, an AC Transit strike is expected to cause much disruption as the BART strike last month did.

“Regrettably, our contingency plan involves simply no service,” Johnson said. “We cannot operate without drivers.”

Wage increases and contributions to health care have proved to be major issues in the negotiations. ATU members currently do not contribute to health coverage costs.

“We’re more than willing to pay,” said Yvonne Williams, president of ATU Local 192. “But we need a flat rate rather than a percentage, since we can’t control what that might escalate to.”

According to Johnson, the district wants ATU employees to contribute 10 percent of the cost of the monthly premiums, which would equal approximately $120 per pay period. The union’s flat rate would equal about $80 per pay period.

In a press conference on Tuesday morning, Johnson said that he is optimistic about preventing a strike, given the steady progress that has been made thus far.

“We started this weekend at $9 million dollars apart,” Johnson said. “We’re now only about $4 million apart as of last night. We are 1 percentage point apart in our wage proposals. We’re offering 9 percent; the union is seeking 10 percent. We’re moving in the right direction.”

According to Williams, however, the negotiations have been a “difficult process.” Although the union wishes to avoid a strike, it remains a possible outcome.

“Our goal is to avert a strike,” Williams said. “But we’re still intending to strike if we do not reach a collective bargaining agreement for our members for ratification.”

Contact Somin Park at sominpark@dailycal.org.

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The study, published last week by a group of four researchers, including two from the Haas School of Business, showed that admissions officers and hiring managers are prone to correspondence bias — ignoring situational context and judging applicants on the same criteria despite differing circumstances.

The study comprised four parts and examined job-hiring decisions and graduate school acceptances in a theoretical experiment and analyzed admissions data from 30,000 applicants at four selective MBA programs.

It found that students who attended schools where grades were inflated were up to 31 percent more likely to be admitted to MBA programs compared to students of similar aptitude at schools where GPAs were not inflated.

“We found that decision-makers routinely fail to take into account the influence of the situation on candidates’ performance, whether that’s GPA or job opportunities,” said Samuel Swift, one of the study’s co-authors and a Haas postdoctoral fellow.

Among other institutions of similar prestige, UC Berkeley reportedly has one of the most stringent grading policies, enforcing GPA caps in its most competitive schools and majors. Such caps may put students at a disadvantage in comparison to similarly qualified students from other institutions where average GPA is higher, according to Don Moore, another co-author and a Haas associate professor.

The problem, according to Moore, is not that students with inflated GPAs have an automatic advantage but that admissions officers lack the information necessary to make fair decisions.

“Admissions officers ought to insist on getting useful contextual information,” Moore said. “It’s not enough to know that a student has a GPA of 3.5. You want to to know class rank, and you want to know what the average GPA of students at that institution is.”

Even so, Moore said, correspondence bias may continue to affect decision-makers even when they are given adequate information.

“The results suggest pessimism,” Moore said. “Even when we gave (test subjects) all the necessary information, they still made this error.”

In March, UC Berkeley considered adding class rank and average class grades to students’ transcripts to better contextualize the school’s grading policies.

Michelle Lam, a UC Berkeley senior, plans to attend medical school and expressed concerns about being at a disadvantage to students from comparable schools with more inflated GPAs.

“I’d probably be annoyed if other students from schools with inflation have a leg up,” Lam said.

Swift said that the admissions process does not rely solely on GPA, but he acknowledged the importance of putting applicants on equal footing.

“It’s still just one ingredient in the process, but it needs to be an ingredient that’s used well,” he said.

The study also found that similar instances of correspondence bias exist in executives’ hiring and promotional decisions, suggesting that professionals working in easier business conditions are more likely to be viewed favorably by superiors than workers performing similarly in more difficult conditions.

“Most people don’t think they are biased,” Moore said. “The truth is that people make this mistake even when they think they’re not.”

Contact Simon Greenhill and Somin Park at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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The ROADS Home award is organized by the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, part of Veterans Affairs.

319 community agencies across the country will receive the grants and use the funding to help 120,000 homeless and at-risk veterans and their families. In 2009, President Barack Obama announced the federal government’s goal to bring an end to veterans’ homelessness by 2015.

BFHP, which supports vulnerable members of the community, will collaborate with Anka Behavioral Health Inc. to expand services for veterans.

“These people deserve respect for what they’ve done,” said Terrie Light, executive director of BFHP. “Some of them have put their lives on the line but have come back and been shunned by society. We want to help them come home.”

According to Light, BFHP will create an outreach team with current and new staff to find people in the community who need support but are not aware of the help available to them.

Jim Huntley, director of advancement at BFHP, said that the organization already has a program funded by Veterans Affairs that provides food and shelter to 12 veterans at a time. The organization will take this model and expand tenfold with the grant.

Half of the funding will serve as direct financial assistance to veterans and veterans’ families who are in danger of becoming homeless, Light said. However, the main focus will remain on veterans who are already homeless.

BFHP will offer the support homeless veterans need for a productive and independent life. Services will include life-skills classes and mental health counseling in partnership with ABHI.

Huntley said that the funding is not enough “by a mile,” but it is certainly a significant step for BFHP and the veterans they hope to help.

According to Light, veterans have a particularly difficult experience in Berkeley.

“They are very anxious about being in Berkeley, which is known as an antiwar-movement center,” Light said. “They’ve had traumas not feeling welcomed. We have made our agency veteran-friendly and made sure that they are treated well here.”

This led BFHP to add a chaplain to the staff to work with the veterans.

BFHP and ABHI have a positive history of working together, Light said. BFHP hopes to collaborate with the other organizations funded across the area for maximum impact.

“Every day, there’s some homeless person or veteran who’s more and more in need of our help, and if we get it to them quickly, it’s even better,” said Yolanda Braxton, vice president of business development at ABHI. “The grant allows them to do that. It’s an exciting time.”

Contact Somin Park at sominpark@dailycal.org.

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Valerio will replace Kathryn Singh, who is returning to Massachusetts for family needs, while Rhine is preceded by Jen Corn, who will transfer to Thousand Oaks Elementary School and oversee its bilingual program.

Donald Evans, the superintendent of Berkeley Unified School District since May, announced the appointments in letters addressed to the schools’ communities last week, praising both women’s aptitudes for their new positions.

Valerio will join LeConte Elementary School from the professional development department of the district, which she joined in 2011. Valerio’s career began with a position as a Spanish bilingual teacher in Oakland and San Leandro, and she continued on to assistant principal positions in elementary schools in Inglewood and Mt. Diablo districts. Before joining the Berkeley district, she coached principals and leadership teams as regional English language arts specialist in Oakland Unified School District.

“She is a well-known candidate who is very successful in leading,” said Neil Smith, assistant superintendent for educational services for the Berkeley school district. “She has great leadership potential.”

Valerio’s fluency in Spanish enhanced her candidacy, considering LeConte’s efforts to become a full two-way immersion school, Smith said. Students will be taught in both English and Spanish to foster a bilingual and multicultural environment.

“Veronica is incredibly strong in curriculum and instruction,” said Mary Buttler, director of human resources with the district. “She’ll bring a lot of knowledge and skills.”

Rhine was the principal of Crocker Highlands Elementary School for the past four years, where she was a “collaborative leader with a deep knowledge of pedagogical practices, curriculum, and grade-level standards,” according to Evans’ letter.

“Rhine brought a high trust factor, said Wendy Ghorai, PTA co-president at Crocker Highlands Elementary School. “The families and students’ needs were her first priority. Berkeley is very lucky to be getting such a great principal.”

Buttler commended the qualities of both principals, whom she met during the application process.

“Rhine has incredible personnel skills, strong collaboration with community, strong instructional background and evidence of solid leadership experience,” Buttler said. “Both women have wonderful personalities and senses of humor.”

Valerio and Rhine were selected following an application process involving two rounds of interview panels with parents, teachers and administrators of the school board.

“Berkeley is so fortunate,” Buttler said. “Every time we look for a new principal, we have a large number of candidates.”

The outgoing principals, Singh and Corn, have served at LeConte and Oxford for one year and two years, respectively. This fall, there will be five new principals in total in the Berkeley district, in addition to the new superintendent.

However, Smith said that he believes the changes in leadership would not pose any problems for either school.

“Berkeley is very fortunate to attract and retain effective principals,” Smith said.

Contact Somin Park at sominpark@dailycal.org.

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Nathaniel Solley/Staff

The LifeLong Medical Care center in Berkeley has received $236,826 in federal grants to help enroll uninsured patients in new health care coverage options.

On Wednesday, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced $150 million in grants for health centers nationwide, $21.9 million of which will go to 129 California health centers to assist Americans in exploring insurance options made available by the Affordable Care Act.

According to Linda Collins, patient services manager at LifeLong Medical Care, the center is planning to use the funding to hire new outreach and enrollment staff members. The center expects to add seven new staff members to the current team of 12, and they will be involved in enrollment and outreach.

As part of its outreach efforts, the LifeLong Medical Care center will meet the community at churches and schools as well as host events and collaborations with statewide partners.

Collins said that LifeLong Medical Care currently serves more than 30,000 patients and intends to increase the number of patients by at least 6,000 by the end of the enrollment period in March.

LifeLong Medical Care has helped many Berkeley residents over the course of 37 years with a variety of services.

“They had a class on smoking,” said Johnnie Mae Poindexter, a 93-year-old patient at LifeLong. “They helped me to quit smoking. I smoked for 53 years.”

Health centers across the nation aim to enroll 3.7 million people with the help of 2,900 additional workers. In California, health centers are expected to hire 411 additional workers with the grants and enroll 575,863 residents, Sebelius said.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, health centers in California served 3.2 million patients last year, and 42 percent were uninsured.

“With these awards, consumers will get help understanding their coverage options through the new Health Insurance Marketplace, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (and) determine their eligibility and what financial help they can get, so they can enroll in new affordable health care options,” said Martin Kramer, director of communications for the Health Resources and Services Administration, in an email.

The HRSA announced the availability of funds in May and accepted applications from health centers. 1,159 out of 1,200 health centers were awarded grants.

“These awards are one piece of the enrollment effort,” Kramer said in the email.

Yolie Gamble, clinic director at the LifeLong Medical Care center in West Berkeley, said that many patients were currently unaware that they could be treated and have the costs covered.

“More patients will know they have coverage and feel they’re not going to go into huge debt,” Gamble said. “I think it’s opening up people’s eyes.”

Contact Somin Park at sominpark@dailycal.org.

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Although once a proponent of electric cars, Zehner suggests in his article published in Spectrum that electric cars may even have greater environmental consequences in their entire life cycles than gasoline-powered cars do.

Currently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Science, Technology and Society Center, Zehner says proponents often overlook the indirect processes that go into the manufacturing of these vehicles — including the mining of rare earth metals and disposal of batteries — that contribute to environmental damage.

“Upon closer consideration, moving from petroleum-fueled vehicles to electric cars begins to look more and more like shifting from one brand of cigarettes to another,” Zehner said.

According to Zehner, the numerous studies on the efficiency of electric vehicles detract attention from other alternatives, such as walking and cycling. He argues that policymakers should shift the focus from electric vehicles to these cleaner modes of transport.

“Communities hold bake sales to fund bike racks,” Zehner said. “Meanwhile, the highway infrastructure is bathed in billions of public funds year after year.”

Despite his argument, other campus members still view electric cars as beneficial to the environment.

“We have to switch to electric vehicles,” said Ethan Elkind, climate policy associate of the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at the UC Berkeley School of Law. “There is simply no other way to avoid worst impacts of climate change without electrifying vehicles.”

Although it would not be easy, Zehner argues that it would be possible to maintain current standards of living without switching to electric vehicles.

“Numerous regions throughout the world have prioritized infrastructure for walking and biking,” he said. “And many of them have higher standards of living than the United States.”

Min Ju Lee, team lead of CalSol, a student-run organization that designs and builds solar cars at UC Berkeley, agrees with Zehner’s argument that the source of electricity is not all clean. However, electric vehicles still remain a very complex issue.

“There are so many things to consider,” Lee said. “There is no clear-cut line as to where you can stop.”

According to Zehner, the future of electric cars depends on how long people are willing to believe in the electric car “illusion.”

Tristan Lall, another member of CalSol and a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, says that the public has already begun to accept electric vehicles and that they are here to stay.

“The definition of an electric car is already broadening as the public comes to accept vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt, and (it) may eventually encompass fuel cell-powered vehicles with similar configurations,” Lall said.

Contact Somin Park at sominpark@dailycal.org.

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Ayon Kabir/Staff

Beginning in July, admission prices to the Campanile are set to rise to fund cosmetic improvements in the lead-up to the UC Berkeley landmark’s 100th anniversary.

General admission prices for adults over the age of 18 will rise from $2 to $3, while reduced admission prices for Cal alumni, visitors under 17 and those over 65 will raise from $1 to $2. UC Berkeley students, faculty and staff members, as well as children under the age of 3, will continue to enjoy free admission.

It has been 15 years since the prices were last raised.

Sather Tower, more commonly known as the Campanile, is one of UC Berkeley’s most well-known landmarks. Completed in 1914, it will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.

According to La Dawn Duvall, executive director of visitor and parent services at UC Berkeley, a recently convened committee is discussing plans for the celebration. Although there are no definite plans, proposed ideas include monthly events to lead up to a “big birthday party” in fall 2014.

The proposed price increases will take effect July 1.

Contact Somin Park at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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