Baker_LandGrantUni

Berkeley as a land grant university

Grass Roots

I’m being selfish when I say that UC Berkeley needs to go back to its roots. As a member of the Student Organic Gardening Association, a facilitator of our organic gardening DeCal and a student deeply passionate about food systems and sustainable agriculture, I can clearly see how little stock Read More…

BroBile

The Discomfort Zone

The Internet has been a fun place this week. Well, fun is relative. It was probably fun if you, like me, avoided the scores of CalSERVE, Student Action and SQUELCH! Facebook posts and messages that accumulated in the week before election day. If you lingered on Facebook with “Thrift Shop” Read More…

bathroom

Stalled identity crisis

Murmurs from the Bathroom Wall

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 Take the two bathroom signs next to the Free Speech Movement Cafe: The woman’s head has been replaced by the symbol for anarchy and the man’s head is blued-out completely.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 Read More…

sexblog 2

The marriage of sugar daddies and prostitution

Sex on Blogday

With UC Berkeley semesterly tuition and fees set around $4,792 for California residents and $18,931 for non-Californians, money is tight. And these numbers don’t account for overpriced housing, food or textbooks. But what if I told you that there may be someone out there who is willing to help pay Read More…

yosemite

Finding passion in California parks

Grass Roots

Seeing Yosemite for the first time was as close to a religious experience as I’ll most likely ever have. I’ve always loved spending time in the outdoors, hiking, kayaking and the like, but this spring break, I realized how deeply I am physically and emotionally tied to the outside world. Read More…

Sproul photo

The unbearable whiteness of being

The Discomfort Zone

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, disgruntled high school senior Suzy Lee Weiss discusses how the college process is unfair. In the op-ed, Weiss connects how colleges tell applicants to “just be yourself” to how these three words break the backs of all college seniors who do not have Read More…

Murmurs

When walls write back

Murmurs from the Bathroom Wall

Trouble in your love life? Need some anonymous guidance to navigate the turbulent tide?  Simply write out your problem in a bathroom stall of your choosing and by the next day you’ll have plenty of responses — some helpful, some judgmental. And, while Berkeley is home to many up-and-coming Dr. Read More…

photo

Do vibrators behold the future of sex?

Sex on Blogday

This past Tuesday, I attended a party at the Berkeley location of Good Vibrations, a Bay Area-based sex shop filled with classy and delicate goodies. The event was co-sponsored by the Berkeley Free Clinic, a sexual nonprofit health care center. I had a blast playing dildo ring toss, listening to Read More…

ZHOU4

Club fatigue

Grass Roots

There are more than 30 environmental student groups on campus. Most have a unique focus on one, maybe two aspects of environmentalism, but all are united through a belief in actively working to make our world more environmentally friendly. I’ve been a member and supporter of many of these clubs Read More…

Lighting the Way to Equality, Marriage Equality New York / 20091

Great dad, awful policy

The Discomfort Zone

This week was a big one for advocates of marriage equality. On Friday, Ohio senator Rob Portman endorsed same-sex marriage, citing his own son’s coming out as the basis for his change of heart. Then on Monday, former Secretary of State and one-time Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton threw her Read More…