Alex Mousouris/Staff

A BART strike has once again been averted — this time until Oct. 10 — following a court-ordered cooling-off period requested by Gov. Jerry Brown and granted Sunday.

The order, given by a San Francisco Superior Court judge, will last 60 days and is intended to alleviate some of the pressure that has characterized negotiations between BART workers and administrators in recent weeks.

The order states that BART unions are now forbidden from striking because a strike, or even the threat of a strike, poses public health and safety risks.

BART unions and administrators are expected to continue negotiations during the cooling-off period in hopes that a contract can be settled before the period expires. If the Oct. 10 deadline passes, BART unions will be authorized to strike, as the governor can only call for one cooling-off period.

“BART is grateful San Francisco Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow has granted Governor Brown’s request for a 60 day cooling off period, ensuring BART trains will continue to run while the District seeks fair and financially sustainable contract agreements with its unions,” said BART spokesperson Rick Rice in a statement.

The injunction follows a seven-day cooling-off period ordered by Brown last Sunday while an appointed board investigated the facts and positions of parties in the dispute.

The board’s report, published Saturday, found that a strike by BART workers — like the four-day strike in July — would cause “significant harm to the public’s health, safety, and welfare.”

“Were the unions to strike at the end of the 7-day cooling off period, the resulting increased congestion would result in an increase in traffic accidents,” the report states. “It would also result in slower response times by emergency personnel responding to those accidents, as well as other public emergencies.”

The report also notes that the parties involved in the dispute are still far from an agreement.

“The parties do not agree on the magnitude of the gap in their respective economic proposals,” the report states. “Other specific unresolved issues are the unions’ proposals for increased workplace safety measures and BART’s proposals for increased rights regarding workforce management.”

Jacob Brown is a news editor. Contact him at jbrown@dailycal.org.

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At the request of BART administration, Brown appointed the three-person board, saying in a statement that a strike would “significantly disrupt public transportation services and will endanger the public’s health, safety, and welfare.” State law forbids any strike or lockout while the board finishes its investigation.

The board’s investigation will include the facts of the dispute and the respective positions of the parties but will not contain recommendations. The report will be made available to the public.

”The board is directed to provide me with a written report within the next seven days,” Brown said in the statement. “For the sake of the people of the Bay Area, I urge — in the strongest terms possible — the parties to meet quickly and as long as necessary to get this dispute resolved.”

The planned strike would have been the second this summer, following the expiration of a 30-day temporary agreement after July’s five-day strike. On Thursday, BART unions gave 72-hour notice of a strike that would begin Monday morning if a contract agreement was not reached between BART and BART unions Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555.

In July, negotiations focused on wage increases for BART workers and the ability to pay into their own pensions. The unions have also requested better security to protect themselves from violence on the job and general improvements such as better lighting on the tracks.

BART leaders said they opposed a strike, saying it unnecessarily harmed passengers.

“As we saw in early July, the effect of a public transit strike is a complete disruption of the Bay Area economy,” said BART President Tom Radulovich in a letter to Brown asking for a cooling-off period. “We believe the public should not be deprived of this essential public service unless all alternatives to prevent a work stoppage have been utilized.”

But union leaders, such as Pete Castelli, executive director of SEIU 1021, said that although BART employees and administration share the common goal of avoiding a strike, he is dissatisfied with BART’s management of the negotiations — especially the administration’s choice to hire Thomas Hock, a $400,000 outside consultant.

Hock left negotiations earlier this month to go on vacation and has only recently returned.

Union negotiators were informed of Hock’s availability ahead of negotiations, said BART spokesperson Rick Rice.

“Mr. Hock is an experienced negotiator, and the district has faith that he’ll get us through to a good contract this time,” he said.

Contact Jacob Brown and Madeleine Pauker at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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Jeffrey Joh/File

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will be appointed as the next president of the University of California system on Friday, pending approval by the UC Board of Regents next week.

Taking over in the wake of President Mark Yudof’s planned August resignation, she will be the first woman to occupy the position of UC president in the system’s 145-year history. She has served as governor of Arizona and was among more than 300 candidates considered for the position. Napolitano also resigned from her position as secretary of Homeland Security on Friday.

Though she lacks previous experience in university administration, Napolitano has served in various public leadership roles. She was the first woman to occupy the position of attorney general of Arizona from 1998 to 2003 and served two terms as governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009. She was also the first woman to chair the National Governors Association.

“I am both honored and excited by the prospect of serving as president of the University of California,” Napolitano said in a statement Friday. “I recognize that I am a non-traditional candidate … In my experience, whether preparing to govern a state or to lead an agency as critical and complex as Homeland Security, I have found the best way to start is simply to listen.”

According to Tim Bee, associate vice president for state relations at the University of Arizona, “education was a top priority” for Napolitano during her tenure as Arizona governor. He noted Napolitano’s help establishing the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in Phoenix, securing pay increases for Arizona university employees and allocating about $1 billion of lottery revenues for university infrastructure, among other things.

“At the time she left office, the university system in Arizona was receiving the largest total general fund appropriations in the history of the state,” Bee said. “Education was a very important focus of her efforts to build a strong workforce and a diversified economy with a focus on science, bioscience and technology.”

But Napolitano still represents an unconventional choice for the university, which only five years ago selected its first president from outside the UC system, Mark Yudof. Yudof had more than two decades of experience in university administration — which included heading the University of Texas and University of Minnesota.

The Board of Regents have set a more political course by selecting Napolitano, at a time when the state government is increasingly involved in its affairs. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown attended a regents meeting for the first time in his term where he criticized the pace at which the university was pursuing online education. Brown’s 2013-14 proposed budget initially tied higher education funding to performance standards set by the state.

Raquel Morales, president of the University of California Student Association, chaired the student advisory committee that aided in Napolitano’s selection. She said the committee was looking for “someone outside of the system” who was “more of a political figure,” able to address issues with the federal government and the state governor.

“It will be exciting to work with her,” Brown said in a brief statement released Friday morning. “Secretary Napolitano has the strength of character and an outsider’s mind that will well serve the students and faculty.”

Student regent Cinthia Flores also said Napolitano’s political experience will help her in the role but that it might be difficult for her to interface with UC students without educational experience.

“I think her name recognition may assist the UC’s advocacy efforts at the state and federal level,” she said. “(But) Napolitano will have a difficult transition into the role of head university administrator. In particular, I think she may need strong guidance in helping build and nurture working relationships with students.”

As Homeland Security secretary, Napolitano has been involved in debates over immigration reform. She has supported provisions of the DREAM Act, allowing students who meet its criteria to remain in the country despite the act failing to pass in Congress.

However, some have expressed concern over her leadership role in the Obama administration’s deportation of more than 1.4 million undocumented immigrants since 2008.

“The Obama administration has deported a staggering number of people,” said ASUC Executive Vice President Nolan Pack. Napolitano’s support of the DREAM Act is also inconsistent with the policies of Homeland Security, he said.

Pack said he doubts whether Napolitano would gain any support from undocumented students in light of this inconsistency.

“It is important students have someone who can understand and empathize in high positions of administration,” Pack said.

Morales said she hopes Napolitano is willing to fight for student rights, which would include efforts to broaden the types of resources available for undocumented students.

“We hope she will be able to address these issues regardless of her background,” Morales said.

Napolitano was recommended to the UC Regents in a unanimous vote by a selection committee that included former student regent Jonathan Stein, former board chair Sherry Lansing, current chair Bruce Varner and regents Richard Blum and Russell Gould, as well as Brown.

Contact Micah Fry at mfry@dailycal.org.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article misspelled Janet Napolitano’s last name.

A previous version of this article may have implied that Janet Napolitano was appointed as UC President on Friday. In fact, she will be appointed pending approval by the UC Board of Regents Thursday.

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Last month, Yudof approved the UCLA Anderson School of Management’s proposal to be primarily covered by student tuition. This is the sixth program at the Anderson School that has become self-supporting.
Yudof’s decision came with a number of conditions, including that the program cannot use state funds or tuition from students in other programs and that financial aid should continue to be provided to eligible students. Yudof also said the Anderson School and the degree programs it contains should retain the characteristics of the “great public research university” that is the University of California.
But this decision raises a few alarming concerns that puts the public mission the UC system was founded upon to the test.

The state currently provides for less than 21 percent of the entire Anderson School budget, according to the school’s website. For every $1 in graduate research funding provided by the state, the UC secures $7 more in federal and private dollars, according to a June UC press release. This is representative of a wider trend in which more and more UC graduate schools are finding alternative ways to fund themselves.
If UC graduate schools continue having to become self-funded or privately funded, there will be a higher incentive to break off and seek increased independence from the UC system in nonfinancial ways as well. One example of this was UC San Francisco Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann’s January 2012 proposal to allow the campus higher financial and governing autonomy from the university following similar efforts from other UC professional schools. Her proposal was approved in the form of a UCSF advisory board, which granted Desmond-Hellmann more autonomy over the campus.

In becoming self-supporting, the Anderson School administration should ensure current tuition levels remain the same. The administration has promised that tuition levels will stay at current levels for the coming school year, but what’s to say it won’t increase further down the line? Even if the state is providing no money to students, the school has a responsibility to students to keep tuition as low as possible.
Making the Anderson School self-sufficient is revealing of a larger net the university has been snagged in. Though state lawmakers continue to tout the California Master Plan as the backbone of California, state funding to the UC and CSU systems has drastically decreased in recent years. The master plan is a beautiful ideal, but the state needs to recognize the funding necessary for that ideal when putting together the budget each year.

Without more stipulations and criteria for future programs aiming to be self-sufficient, we’re on a crash course to becoming a fully privatized university.

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The court’s decision of 7 to 1 said that when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit judged the case, it did not hold the University of Texas at Austin to the burden of strict scrutiny that was prescribed in previous affirmative action cases, such as Grutter v. Bollinger and Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The decision means the university must prove in a lower court that its admissions practices are narrowly targeted to its educational goals.

Abigail Fisher, a white student, brought the lawsuit against the University of Texas at Austin, claiming she was rejected for admission in 2008 as a result of racial discrimination prohibited by the 14th Amendment. The university argued it had an interest in pursuing diversity for its educational benefits.

In August, the University of California and chancellors from all 10 UC campuses submitted an amicus brief declaring support for the University of Texas at Austin’s use of race in the admissions process.

Since 1997, California public universities have not been able to consider race in admissions because of Proposition 209, a 1996 ballot initiative forbidding state-funded institutions from considering factors such as race or ethnicity in admissions or hiring decisions.

In a statement released following the decision, UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks criticized California’s continued ban of race-based admissions but praised the court’s decision for acknowledging the benefits of maintaining diversity in higher education.

“At the University of California, we have experienced the unfortunate consequences of state law that precludes the consideration of race, even in the context of a holistic admissions review,” Dirks said. “It is reassuring to know that universities in states permitting the consideration of race in admissions will not be compelled to take the same unfortunate path the University of California has been forced to follow.”

However, any immediate effects of the decision on affirmative action in California are unlikely because of Prop. 209, according to Janelle Scott, a professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education.

“We have the Grutter decision … (and) that didn’t do anything in California,” Scott said. “So I think it’s unlikely any other decision will shift 209.”

However, Tony Le, executive director of the UC Berkeley bridges Multicultural Resource Center, said that the decision may recatalyze action for SB 185, a 2011 bill that would have overturned Prop. 209. SB 185 passed both state legislative houses but was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

“If (a similar bill) were to pass, the supporters of affirmative action will push it further, since it was so close the first time,” Le said.

Contact Mary Zhou at mzhou@dailycal.org

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The new program aims to reduce the cost of tuition by up to 40 percent for UC and CSU students with family incomes between $100,000 and $150,000 beginning with the 2014-15 school year — this is encouraging for the UC, which has seen rapidly rising tuition costs in the last few years due to lack of state funding.

The program is aimed at middle class families who make above typical financial aid guidelines but who still cannot afford high tuition costs.

The scholarship represents a marked increase in state support for higher education, due in part to Proposition 39, which gathers additional funds by closing a tax loophole for out-of-state corporations. It follows another increase in funding for the UC and CSU thanks to the passage of Prop. 30 last fall, which guarantees an additional $250 million each for UC and CSU in the upcoming school year.

Unlike past iterations of the budget, the passed version does not make the added funds contingent upon education based performance conditions. These conditions would have required individual schools to demonstrate that they were increasing affordability, decreasing average time for students’ to earn a degree, improving completion rates and increasing transfer rates. California lawmakers voted against these conditions when they passed the revised state budget earlier this month, which represents a recognition on their part that the legislature should limit its involvement in higher education’s operational matters.

Still, the new program provides far less aid than the bill that failed last August. The 2012 Middle Class Scholarship Act would have cut UC and CSU fees by 60 percent for middle-class students by closing a different set of tax loopholes.

That bill failed to pass at the last minute  in the Senate after the lawmakers were unable to reach an agreement over proposed revisions to it. It is discouraging that the new plan is less robust than the old one, that it took almost a year for lawmakers to come up with an alternative way to support the middle class and that this program had to be added to the state budget rather than passing as an independent bill.

In the last election, Californians made it clear they are willing to have their taxes increased to support public education. Increasing state support should not stop with the middle class scholarship program, whether that support involves direct funding increases or a plan to alternatively fund public higher education given state and federal budget cuts.

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The scientific consensus, entitled “Maintaining Humanity’s Life Support Systems in the 21st Century,” estimates that human quality of life will degrade substantially by the year 2050 if negative environmental trends such as climate change continue on their current trajectory. Geared toward policymakers, the consensus explains environmental threats in simple language that is scientifically accurate but understandable to the public.

“These are very big problems, but they’re solvable,” said Anthony Barnosky, a UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology and lead author of the consensus.

Thirty-nine fellow UC Berkeley scientists have also joined Barnosky in endorsing this statement. The enterprise aims to urge policymakers to take a more active role in creating environmental change.

“We have the technology,” Barnosky said. “What’s lacking is the societal understanding of the seriousness of the issues and the political will and special interest groups.”

The consensus raises five primary environmental concerns: climate disruption, extinction, transformation of ecosystems, pollution and population growth.

Rodolfo Dirzo, a co-author of the statement and a professor of biology at Stanford University, hopes that the presentation of this information will act as an impetus for action and force decision-makers to tackle environmental hazards.

According to Dirzo, while other similar efforts tend to focus mainly on climate change, the consensus is unique because it examines how different factors in environmental change affect one another. For example, the report details the connection between biological extinction and the loss of ecosystems.

The statement also introduces the notion of “tipping points” that can be reached when a complex system such as the Earth’s climate approaches a threshold. After the “tipping point” is passed, it becomes increasingly difficult to stop change.

“A familiar example of a tipping point is how a ship capsizes,” said David Ackerly, a UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology and signatory of the report. “It can recover from a small perturbation, but once it is pushed over too far, it suddenly flips.”

Tipping points, especially as related to climate change, address one of the major concerns of the statement — the fact that it is difficult to say when environmental situations will become irreversible.

Among the recommendations in the statement are decreasing greenhouse emissions by using carbon-neutral energy technologies in place of fossil fuels, slowing high extinction rates by assigning economic valuations to natural waterways and minimizing the transformation of natural ecosystems by increasing efficiency in existing food-production areas.

“The overall message is, we have to start dealing with these environmental problems in a very holistic way, and we need to realize it’s understanding how they interact,” Barnosky said.

Contact Angelica Villegas at avillegas@dailycal.org.

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Andrew Kuo/File

Hundreds of students, friends and family gathered at the Greek Theatre Monday morning to witness their loved ones receive diplomas as well as to hear Gov. Jerry Brown speak at the the department of political science’s commencement ceremony.

In his commencement address, Brown offered words of advice, encouragement and caution to this year’s class of political science majors, saying that the political sphere is not only in need of “fresh minds” but also that “people can exercise power wherever they are in society.”

Brown recalled his own time as a UC Berkeley undergraduate, including when he received his diploma from his own father, who was then governor of California. Nobody knew he was the governor’s son until graduation, he said.

“I felt a real sense of loss,” Brown said. “I knew that a very special time in my life was over. I didn’t know how many more adventures and surprises were yet to come.”

Brown also looked to the future, encouraging graduates to use the knowledge and skills they learned during their time at UC Berkeley to make real and lasting change in society.

“In crucial moments, imaginative and bold people make a difference,” he told the nearly 360 graduates seated before him in the midmorning heat. “As you leave, never forget what the graduates before you did. You have the intellect; make sure you have the will.”

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau spoke at the ceremony as well, noting that the event was one of the last he would attend as chancellor. Birgeneau not only congratulated the graduates themselves but also “the families, partners and friends” who supported them along the way.

Many graduates and family members said they were at a loss for words following the ceremony, saying that it symbolized an end to years of hard work and personal growth.

“I’ve grown in every possible way,” said graduate Ismail Desouki after the ceremony. “I’ve learned to appreciate every moment.”

Ana Lozano, another graduate, agreed that her two years on campus have changed her unimaginably.

“I think I’ve grown both intellectually and emotionally,” she said, “and as a human being.”

Many parents echoed the graduates’ sentiments, saying that they had witnessed their children develop and mature during their years at UC Berkeley.

“(My daughter) is more into civil rights, people’s rights,” said Robert Barajas, who was attending the ceremony in support of his daughter, Diana. Barajas, who said he was a single father, added that Diana was the first in her family to receive a college diploma. He was elated to see her graduate after years of hard work — both on his part and hers.

“(For) her, it is a great opportunity,” he said. “I’m out of words.”

Click here to see a video of Brown’s address.

Contact Sara Grossman at sgrossman@dailycal.org.

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Adelyn Baxter/Senior Staff

 Gov. Jerry Brown released a revision of his previously proposed state budget Tuesday that maintains a tuition freeze, reduces the proposed funding allocation for higher education and withdraws the previously proposed unit cap.

The revised budget, commonly known as the May revision, reflects new spending proposals from state legislators, changes in the state’s economic outlook and decreases in federal government funding since the governor’s first proposed budget in January.

The UC Board of Regents will discuss the revised budget at its meeting in Sacramento on Wednesday.

If approved by the Legislature, the governor’s budget will increase funding for each of the state’s higher education systems above the prior year’s funding. The university will receive an increase of up to 20 percent in General Fund appropriations — about $511 million — over the next four years.

According to the budget, these changes will represent an increase of about 10 percent in total operating funds, including tuition and fee revenues.

The budget includes about $25.4 billion in total funding for higher education in the coming fiscal year, $400 million less than was proposed in January.

In addition, a previously proposed unit cap has also been removed from the budget following rejection from the state Legislature. Faculty groups and lawmakers criticized the 150 percent unit cap on state-subsidized courses for its “one-size-fits-all” model and argued that the mandate would not be as effective as individual campus caps.

According to the UC Office of the President, the unit cap would have impacted 2,200 UC students in the 2013-14 academic year.

“UC will continue working with the governor and the Legislature to address critical funding needs,” said Patrick Lenz, the university’s vice president for budget and capital resources, in a statement.

According to the governor’s press release, the budget is expected to remain balanced in the coming years. Spending cuts enacted over the past two years and new temporary funds brought in by Proposition 30, which was passed by voters last November, are expected to allow the state budget to reduce the state’s debt to $4.7 billion by 2017 — a reduction of more than 86 percent.

“This budget builds a solid foundation for California’s future by investing in our schools, continuing to pay down our debts and establishing a prudent reserve,” Brown said in a press release. “But California’s fiscal stability will be short-lived unless we continue to exercise the discipline that got us out of the mess we inherited.”

Additional elements of the revised budget include changes to the state’s public school funding system, investment in job-creation programs and an additional $72 million for county probation departments to compensate for their increased responsibilities as legislatures try to reduce the state’s prison population.

Brown will now have to convince the state Legislature that his plans for higher education and the state merit passage. After discussion from state senators and assembly members, the budget will be finalized in June and take effect July 1, the start of the 2013-14 fiscal year.

Alex Berryhill covers higher education. Contact her at aberryhill@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @berryhill93.

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Taryn Erhardt/File

The UC Board of Regents will meet in Sacramento next week to discuss Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised 2013-14 budget, among other matters.

The regents will also review a special report by UC President Mark Yudof on the current and future challenges facing the university, a report on the university’s academic performance and a proposed design for a new aquatics center at the UC Berkeley campus.

On Wednesday morning, the board will hear an update on Brown’s revised budget, which reflects new revenue estimates and the effects of new proposals by the state Legislature on the budget.

Later that day, the Committee on Educational Policy will hear a report on “academic performance indicators” at the University of California. The report summarizes two decades of statistics collected from the 10 UC campuses and finds that despite declining state support, the university has continued to excel by a number of performance indicators, including graduation rates and number of students enrolled.

Over the last two decades, four-year graduation rates have increased substantially. The entering class of 2007 had a graduation rate of 60 percent, up from 37 percent for the entering class of 1992, according to the report.

The report also recommends that state legislators give the university and individual campuses greater flexibility, authority and resources. The positive outcomes seen over the last two decades show that the university can function better independent of the state, the report says.

The committee will also discuss a proposal to increase investment in the university’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources for new research that includes work on invasive pests and diseases, childhood obesity and sustainable food projects.

The Committee on Grounds and Buildings will vote on a proposed design for a new aquatics center on the UC Berkeley campus. The $15 million project, which was announced last month, will be funded entirely by Cal Aquatic Legends, an independent nonprofit donor group founded to raise money for the project. The center would only be used for athletic training.

The project requires an amendment to the UC Berkeley 2020 Long Range Development Plan, which the Committee on Grounds and Buildings will be asked to certify and approve.

The Committee on Finance will vote on the 2013-14 financing of Cap-Equip, a universitywide program that aims to restructure capital financing and save money on research, telecommunications and software equipment. The committee will also vote on maintaining the expenditure rate for the university’s endowment pool.

The Committee on Oversight of the Department of Energy Laboratories will hear updates from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on climate research, a new X-ray laser that determines protein structures and a recent grant from the Department of Energy for the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville. In April, the department promised about $25 million annually through 2018 for the development of new biofuels.

On Thursday, after a public comment period, the regents will hold closed meetings with the Committee on Compensation and the Committee on Finance as well as other regents-only meetings.

Alex Berryhill covers higher education. Contact her at aberryhill@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @berryhill93.

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