The victim was standing at the shuttle pickup location in front of the residence hall on Channing Way about 7:45 p.m. when she was approached from behind by the perpetrator, according to a UCPD crime alert released Friday. The suspect shoved her and took her cellphone before running west on Channing Way and south on Dana Street.

The victim was not injured during the encounter.

UCPD and Berkeley Police Department searched the area but were unable to locate the perpetrator.

According to the UCPD crime alert, the suspect is described as:

A black male, approximately 19 years old, 5-foot-11 in height, weighing about 170 pounds and wearing a black jacket and blue jeans.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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Kelly Fang/Senior Staff

Check out our photo gallery of the explosion here.

An explosion on the UC Berkeley campus near California Hall injured several people, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency and order an evacuation of the campus about 6:40 p.m. Monday evening.

Three people were treated on scene for injuries, and one was transported to a hospital with minor burn injuries, according to campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof. At least 20 people were stuck in elevators as a result of an earlier power outage but were freed by 9 p.m., Mogulof said.

The explosion appears to be related to vandalism discovered by the campus late last week, Mogulof said. Vandals were stealing or attempting to steal copper grounding wire from an electrical system not readily visible, and the damage appears to be more extensive than initially believed. The explosion occurred as engineers were restoring power after a campuswide outage about 4:45 p.m., Mogulof said.

The explosion originated in an underground vault beneath a road by California Hall near the center of campus, said UCPD Sgt. Andrew Tucker.

“At first, I was really scared because I thought the explosion was big enough to produce a shock wave,” said sophomore Jennifer Han, who was walking home from a midterm when the explosion happened. “You heard it first, and then there were flames.”

At least four ambulances, fire trucks and multiple police units responded to the incident.

An ammonia leak in Latimer Hall, likely related to the power failure, was contained by Berkeley Fire Department about 6:20 p.m., said UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode.

Daily Cal multimedia producer Miles Mathews captured the billowing fire after an explosion on the UC Berkeley campus.

After the explosion, officials instructed everyone to evacuate the campus through the north and west entrances. They also advised people to stay away from manholes on campus.

At 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, campus officials announced that power had been restored to most buildings on campus and that most classes will meet as scheduled. Eleven buildings remain without power and are not operational: Alumni House, Bancroft Library, California Hall, Central Heating Plant, Doe Library, Durant Hall, Dwinelle Hall, Dwinelle Annex, Edwards Track (East and West areas), Haas Pavillion and EH&S Facility, according to the UC Berkeley public affairs website.

Students should assume classes are cancelled in these buildings for the day and should check in with departments to see if and when classes and events will be rescheduled, and employees in these buildings should check in with supervisors about reporting to work, the website said.

“We’re in uncharted territory,” Mogulof said at a press conference Monday night. “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Daily Californian online managing editor Seung Y. Lee took video footage of a plume of smoke erupting from campus as the explosion took place near Wheeler Hall.

Freshman Henry Rowswell described the explosion as a “fireball” that was as tall as California Hall.

Martina Baccari, a Berkeley High School student who was on campus at the time of the incident, said she felt heat in her face directly after the explosion.

Shortly after the power outage, smoke was seen rising from an old power generator near Bancroft Library that kicked in when power went out, said UCPD officer Barry Boersma. It is unclear whether the two incidents are related.

At 6:05 p.m., the campus sent out an alert through its emergency text message system canceling classes and shutting down lab operations for the rest of the day.

The outage affected buildings from Strawberry Canyon to University Hall, including the chancellor’s residence, said Christine Shaff, communications director for Facilities Services. Student housing Units 1, 2 and 3, Maximino Martinez Commons and Foothill also were affected.

The residence halls affected by the outage were being powered by generators Monday evening, Mogulof said. Although parts of buildings remained without power, students were still allowed in, he said.

The outage also affected Cal Dining services Monday evening. Foothill and Crossroads will remain open with limited service, but Cafe 3 and Clark Kerr Campus dining commons will be unaffected, according to the Cal Dining Facebook page.

“We got very, very lucky that there were no serious injuries,” Mogulof said.

UC Berkeley senior Ana Reyes took video footage of the explosion.

Staff writers Adrianna Dinolfo, Chloe Hunt and Chris Yoder contributed to this report. Executive News Editor Sara Grossman also contributed to this story.

Megan Messerly and Jeremy Gordon are news editors. Contact them at newsdesk@dailycal.org and follow the Daily Cal twitter page at @dailycal.

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According to UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada, UCPD received a call at 11:35 p.m. from the Unit 2 Academic Center, where a female student in the center saw a male masturbating outside. According to the UCPD crime log, the suspect is of unknown ethnicity, about 5-foot-10 and wore a white T-shirt and green pants.

About an hour later, at 12:44 a.m., UCPD responded to a second incident, which occurred in the lower level of Unit 3’s central building. A female student emerged from a bathroom stall to find a white male between the ages of 30 and 40 in the bathroom exposing himself, Tejada said. She was the only other person in the bathroom.

Although UCPD responded to the incident at Unit 3, officers were unable to find the perpetrator, Tejada said.

According to Tejada, UCPD is investigating how the perpetrator was able to enter the Unit 3 building. Tejada also said the department is investigating whether the two incidents are related.

Contact J. Hannah Lee at jhlee@dailycal.org.

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Of the nine alcohol-related illnesses UCPD responded to over the course of this year’s residence hall move-in weekend, eight cases resulted in an underage individual being transported to the hospital.

Alcohol-related illness occurs when someone becomes ill or unresponsive due to alcohol intoxication or a combination of alcohol and drug use.

“I’ve never seen eight in one night,” said UCPD Lt. Eric Tejada of the Monday cases. “We get one to three on a weekend, usually, at least in the first few weeks. To see eight in one night is pretty troubling.”

According to UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode, at least six of the eight cases Monday took place in residence halls, including Clark Kerr Campus, Unit 1, Unit 2 and Unit 3.

The case that did not result in the hospitalization of someone underage involved a person of legal drinking age who became combative with paramedics while being treated for alcohol-related illness. According to Tejada, the individual subsequently was arrested and taken to jail.

The last several years have seen an uptick in alcohol-related illness during and after residence hall move-in weekend. In 2010, UCPD responded to seven alcohol-related illness calls between move-in weekend and Labor Day. During the same time period in the following year, the number of calls doubled. In 2012, UCPD responded to five reports of alcohol-related illness during move-in weekend alone, Tejada said.

UC policy prohibits student drinking that impairs “work performance, scholarly activities, or student life.” Yet incidents such as these are “pretty common,” according to Marty Takimoto, spokesperson for the campus’s Residential and Student Service Programs.

“You have a group of 16- to 18-year-olds living without their parents’ supervision for the first time,” Takimoto said. “College is about becoming a responsible, independent adult, and some new students will be irresponsible in experimenting with alcohol.”

UC Berkeley freshman Reaa Puri and her peers attended a presentation on alcohol use led by a resident director at Clark Kerr Campus on Sunday.

“(The presentation) made me realize there are real consequences and that I should be careful in my actions,” Puri said. “I’m sure it scared people into not drinking or drinking responsibly. But it was Sunday, and that’s when most of the parents left.”

Contact Nico Correia at ncorreia@dailycal.org.

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Andrew Kuo/Senior Staff

An April inspection into the seismic safety levels of Units 1, 2 and 3 found four high-rise buildings in each residence hall complex to be below safety standards held by the University of California.

The buildings are rated between a IV and a V on the university’s scale for seismic safety, according to Christine Shaff, director of communications for UC Berkeley’s Facilities Services department. Those ratings imply a risk to life between “small” and “serious,” according to UC seismic safety policy.

Evaluations of the housing units in 1997 indicated that the high-rise buildings met the university’s standards. The goal of construction this summer, Shaff said, is to bring the residence halls to an acceptable rating of III.

Construction began on the high-rises — which do not include newer mini-suites — on May 19 and is scheduled to finish before fall residents begin to move in on Aug. 24. Exterior work, however, will continue through the fall semester.

The construction will cost $9.2 million for Unit 3, while Unit 1 and Unit 2 will each cost $8.8 million, according to Marty Takimoto, director of communications and marketing for the Residential and Student Service Programs, which oversees the residence halls. Only RSSP funds were used for the retrofitting.

“All our revenue comes from room and board and the rent students pay,” Takimoto said. “We use that revenue to fund projects like this, and we had this money in reserve.”

Takimoto said that the retrofitting is important in preserving the longevity of the buildings but that the seismic retrofit will also affect future plans to improve housing for students.

Some of these future plans include a major renovation of Unit 3, currently budgeted at $76.9 million for 2016-17, according to the University of California Capital Financial Plan for 2012-22. $23.1 million of the project is slated to come from auxiliary services like housing, according to the report.

“With this additional strengthening this summer, we will likely postpone any major renovation to Unit 3 for a while longer,” Takimoto said in an email.

After the inspection in April, plans were made to begin construction as soon as students moved out for the summer. Students were notified on April 30 that construction was planned, and fall 2013 residents were notified on May 29 that some exterior work will continue during the fall semester.

“We kind of lucked out,” Takimoto said. “We weren’t given an edict to do the construction right away — just as quickly as possible. We were able to make it happen quickly because there was time.”

The units have had seismic retrofitting before, which added cross bracing on the exterior of some buildings. High-rises in Units 1, 2 and 3 were each renovated between 1986 and 1996.

One of RSSP’s goals during construction has been to reduce the impact on residents, Takimoto said.

Students who would have otherwise used the units during the summer have already been reassigned to other residential halls on campus. Summer session students will live at Clark Kerr Campus, and CalSO students will stay in Bowles and Stern halls, Takimoto said.

Only the high-rise buildings are being retrofitted this summer. They include Cheney, Deutsch, Freeborn and Putnam halls in Unit 1; Cunningham, Davidson, Ehrman and Griffiths halls in Unit 2; and Ida Sproul, Norton, Priestley and Spens-Black Halls in Unit 3. The remaining halls, referred to as infill buildings, are newer and do not require retrofitting.

The seismic retrofitting project falls in line with the goals of UC Berkeley’s SAFER program, implemented in 1997 to address structurally unsafe buildings on campus. The high rises and Unit 3 were given a rating of “good” that same year, which is roughly equivalent to a III on the new UC scale.

Of the total square footage identified by SAFER as needing an upgrade, 60 percent has been completed or is in progress. Another 10 percent is scheduled to be strengthened by 2014.

Contact Jose Hernandez at jhernandez@dailycal.org.

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As a health worker for Unit 3 this past year, I was used to residents coming to my door late at night, timidly asking if I had any banana-flavored condoms left or wondering how to make an appointment at the Tang Center. In fact, I looked forward to those interactions. But 3 a.m. was a pretty unusual time to hear any knocking. Groggy, confused, and clad in my uncomfortably tight boxer briefs, I opened the door on a late Friday night to two serious faces staring nervously right at me.

I could tell this wasn’t just a late-night condom run. Standing in my doorway, one of them bluntly said, “I think our friend has alcohol poisoning.”

I muttered an expletive under my breath.

Sure, I was trained to notice signs of alcohol poisoning. “Remember ‘CUSP’: clammy, unconscious, slow breathing, pale.” Super easy, right? But until then, I had never been faced with such a situation.

So I followed them to their floor, shuffling through my memory bank to recall everything I had learned about alcohol poisoning and got ready to call 911.

When I got to her room, I found the girl in question lying on the bed, inebriated and surrounded by her floormates. She was perfectly conscious and entirely capable of carrying on conversation. But I proceeded through the checklist — just in case.

Normal breathing: check. Clammy: nope. Pale: not at all. So I reassured her friends that she wasn’t showing any signs of alcohol poisoning but that it would be a good idea to keep an eye on her throughout the night and to find me if they had any remaining concerns.

I took the walk back up to my floor feeling incredibly relieved, and it immediately occurred to me that the week’s “health tip” that I posted was about partying safe and being a good bystander in case of emergency. My residents had actually taken something from my tip and used it that night to keep themselves safe and healthy.

That stressful five-minute encounter proved that all of the responsibilities, commitments and experiences that contribute to the complex life of a college student open the door to a variety of health issues. From relationships to the flu, managing these issues is crucial to maintaining yourself.

As fun as Berkeley is, I think the student body can still make improvements among itself — not necessarily in its recognition of the full scope of existing health concerns, but rather in how students make each other conscious of these concerns. How many times have you walked down Sproul and had the opportunity to trade the business flier that you blindly grabbed for something associated with student health? The advertising of groups, organizations, programs and resources dedicated to student health just isn’t as prominent as it should be.

We have — or, rather, should have — the fundamental right to pursue our interests and strengthen our creative spirit with no restrictions. That’s what these four years are for, right? But being bummed about an ailing relationship — romantic or platonic — or being stressed about classes to the point where sleep becomes an afterthought does just that: present restrictions. While these kinds of things may not be entirely preventable, creating a dialogue around them and raising awareness among students can never hurt.

To consider myself an undeniable expert on things like relationships, sex, depression and stress would be completely foolish, but I’m trying to increase the understanding of these issues. A large aspect of my job was to educate the residents on all aspects of college health through weekly health tips, one-on-one interactions and monthly events.

Over the course of the year, I had numerous encounters with students relating to any issue you could possibly imagine — from common things like stress, depression and nutrition to unexpected afflictions like scalp sunburns, infected foot mosquito bites and random requests for XXL condoms. A happy result of all this is the well-rounded outlook I gained on the range of issues that we as a student body have to deal with on top of our academic responsibilities.

I saw how unnerving it could be to constantly worry about the potential consequences of unprotected sex from the previous night. I saw how debilitating depression could be for someone who was so intelligent but didn’t have the energy to reach his or her potential. By no means am I downplaying these situations, but the consequences of some of these instances could have been prevented — or, at least, eased — with the right resources.

I truly wish this column could solve all the health and wellness issues on campus. More reasonably, however, it will serve as an additional resource to raise awareness of the things we don’t always think about. Making college health issues more prominent on our campus will be difficult — but not everything is as easy or straightforward as CUSP.

Shahin Firouzbakht writes a Thursday column on health issues affecting student life. Contact Shahin Firouzbakht at sfirouzbakht@dailycal.org.

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The Cal Student Orientation is your first impression of the incredible smarts and urban eccentricity that is Berkeley. We at the Clog sure haven’t forgotten our own CalSO experiences. If you’ve already had your CalSO years and years ago, we hope you’ll find something you can relate to in our stories, and if you’re a new freshman admit, we hope you’ll learn something!

Freshmen, meet Tele-BEARS. 

How sweet were the days in which I had no clue what Tele-BEARS was. If only it really were an intergalactic bear floating somewhere out there in space. But it’s not. It’s your worst nightmare.

I can recall both my sense of naivety and the aching of my calves while trying to keep up with my CalSO leader heading into Tolman Hall. I had no course control numbers written on a notepad — just a bunch of classes I thought I would be interested in (a list that I would soon realize was useless). Upon finding an unoccupied computer, I sat listening to what sounded like the fast-forward Terms and Conditions in a sketchy infomercial on how to work the thing. After nodding, acknowledging, “Yes, I totally understand completely,” when we were asked if we understood their directions, I was released to attack the beast — in less than 30 minutes.

I proceeded to add and drop classes like I knew what I was doing. My heart would break a little each time I was wait-listed for a class I wanted to take that was my only option. Wasn’t college all about having the liberty to take the classes you wanted?

I didn’t have the best first Tele-BEARS experience, but I learned the importance of using ScheduleBuilder and having course control numbers and back-up plans ready. Lots of them.

— Karen Kwaning

Thank God for caffeine

It’s amazing that I was able to stay awake at all during CalSO. Because the transfer student CalSO is only one 12-hour day, I opted not to stay the night before. Plus, I didn’t want to pay to park my car overnight, because I knew that no matter what, I would be driving to Berkeley. Who knows — maybe my subconscious was telling me that although I’d never visited Unit 3, I definitely wouldn’t want to sleep there. So I woke up at 3 a.m. to drive to CalSO. Did I mention that I couldn’t fall asleep until after midnight?

I made it to Berkeley just as the sun was beginning to rise — or rather, just as light was starting to poke through the overcast sky. There were hardly anyone on the streets (an image I recall on days when Telegraph is bustling). I don’t think I have ever seen Berkeley as quiet as I did that morning. I parked at Underhill right before 5 a.m., and I’m sure I was the first student to show up that morning. So I just relaxed in my car until I could head over to Unit 3 to sign in.

For the rest of the day, as many incoming Cal students will soon find out, I practically sprinted from one end of campus to another, trying to acquaint myself with as many new resources and people as I could in 12 hours. It was one of the most tiring days of my life, but that also means that I’ll never forget it.

I would like to thank caffeine — both Starbucks and Dr. Pepper — for making my CalSO experience possible.

— Jessica Rogness

Is that a … mustache? 

I had a CalSO leader with a mustache … who was a girl. She was super friendly and laid back and introduced our CalSO group to the joys of falafel and vegan dining options at Cal. She got me thoroughly  excited to be at a liberal-minded college after living a very conservative region of Orange County for so long.

— Liz Zarka

From SoCal to NorCal

My CalSO experience started at the Oakland Airport the night before orientation. I arrived about as wide-eyed as any suburb-slicker would; admittedly, I was a tad nervous but still eager to take on the big city (truthfully, Berkeley is quite a modestly sized city. It felt big at the time). As I strolled through the airport, I emphatically quipped “Go Bears” to an older man with a Cal sweatshirt; I saw Berkeley merchandise at a vendor’s window. Soon, I was walking with an unwarranted sense of belonging. I felt at home.

Unfortunately, all those good feelings disappeared when I arrived at BART. As a native of southern California, public transportation was never my strong suit. But in a stellar example of the pride, friendliness and ubiquity of Cal’s student body, I saw a fellow Bear wearing a Berkeley sweater. I asked her if she was en route to the school and thankfully, she said yes. I was guided through the terminals, through Center Street and right to the west side of campus. Needless to say, I was awestruck by Berkeley’s unique blend of urbanity and forest.

The next day, I woke up bright and early to get ready for orientation. As I sat in 2050 VLSB, getting my “bear”-ings, an advisor enthusiastically said, “ Even some of your classes will be taught by Nobel laureates!” The person sitting next to me casually looked down the aisle to make eye contact with his friend, turned to me, and casually said, “Yeah, his father is a Nobel laureate.” I was starstruck and a little overwhelmed. But looking back, that is Berkeley in a nutshell: Academic excellence is somehow both revered and everyday. CalSO, like Berkeley in general, is special because it prepares its students for bigger and better things.

— Griffin Mori-Tornheim

Image Source: ctsnow under Creative Commons.

Contact the Clog Staff at clog@dailycal.org.

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This Saturday, Cal alumnus Steve Wozniak will be the keynote speaker at UC Berkeley’s 2013 commencement ceremony. He transferred to Cal for his third year of college after completing his freshman year at the University of Colorado and his sophomore year at De Anza College. But he left Berkeley after only one year to co-found Apple Inc. with Steve Jobs and singlehandedly create Apple I and Apple II, which revolutionized the world. Ten years later, he returned to Berkeley to finish what he started, graduating in 1986 with a degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences.

But what was Steve Wozniak’s Cal experience really like? We at the Daily Clog sat down with the Wizard of Wozillia himself to find out.

The Daily Californian: Can you tell us a little bit about how you arrived at UC Berkeley? Why did you choose to transfer here for your junior year?

Steve Wozniak: My parents had me apply to the University of California because it was an awful lot less expensive. So I applied. Berkeley really was the school I would have wanted to go to, because it had a reputation for intellectual free-thinking. Civil liberties and the politics and economics of war were being challenged. Freedom of speech was being brought up as a subject. So I really admired Berkeley in that sense. I just wanted to be among great thinkers. So in my third year of college, I transferred into Berkeley.

DC: After your first year at UC Berkeley, you left and founded Apple with Steve Jobs. But you made sure to return to UC Berkeley to finish your degree. Why? Why does a college degree matter to you?

SW: I had done a lot outside of Cal that would have been equivalent to Master’s and PhD projects, but having a symbol to represent these accomplishments is very important. Also, just being able to tell your kids what college you went to is going to encourage them to go to college. And college is just the most fun four years of your life.

DC: Where, in your experience, is the best place for experiencing what it means to be a Golden Bear?

SW: Oh my gosh. The first place that comes to mind is the rallies before the Big Game. As part of Berkeley itself, Sather Gate stands out in my mind as the most prominent feature of the university.

DC: Sproul Plaza has always been a center of campus activity. Any memories, strange encounters or lessons that you learned there?

SW: I often saw musicians sitting down and playing the guitar. I was into that kind of folkish approach. Sometimes, I’d sit down and listen to them — and even skip class for it.

DC: Do you still like the same kind of music? What’s playing on your iTunes right now?

SW: [laughs] Usually something a little bit country. A little bit folk. Ariana Gillis is one of my favorites. Let’s see, I like The Airborne Toxic Event, Train, Counting Crows — oh my gosh — Counting Crows. Right out of Berkeley! I love them so much. We got to meet the guitarist and we go out with him and his girlfriend all the time.

DC: Do you have a favorite song from Counting Crows?

SW: “Round Here,” “Mr. Jones,” … actually, all their songs. They are just so incredible. I actually take most songs I like and go online, read the lyrics and think about them. This kind of thinking is what college is about and it means a lot to me. Music was a big part of my life in learning how to live.

DC: Cool. Other than music, Sproul is known for its demonstrations. Was this true when you were at Cal?

SW: We had sit-downs in those days. But there was one protest where marchers went to Bancroft and Shattuck and smashed every window. We had large demonstrations; the police would show up and start firing tear gas and everyone would run. The cops would be shooting rubber bullets, so the kids in the dorms would love to go looking for them. I kept hoping … to get a picture taken next to a tear gas canister spewing out smoke. But I never achieved that. I never found a rubber bullet either — but thank God I never got a hit by one. Although, one time I was at a payphone on Bancroft and Telegraph and all of a sudden cops pulled up in “blue minis.” They started shooting their guns; the crowd started running but I was trapped in the phone booth, waiting for an operator to get back to me. I was ducking down. The windows were already broken on that pay phone. I was so scared I was going to get hit. But I didn’t. They left me alone. [laughs]

DC: While living in Norton Hall, Unit 3, you describe phone phreaking. Can you tell us a bit more? What experience stands out?

SW: Wow. I discovered, the day before coming to school at Berkeley, this whole idea that you could put little tones into a phone and dial calls anywhere in the world. It was  a bug in the phone system. I was talented enough to build tone makers — I did this with Steve Jobs — and I was excited that we would be able to make a device that would make calls all over the world. We were honest enough to tell our parents what we were doing. They just said not to make any of the calls from their phones. So we would mostly do it from the dorm rooms.

I had read about phone phreaks that were great engineers. They would hook into payphone cables in Arizona and set up worldwide networks. They were smarter than phone company engineers and drove around with vans full of equipment. And oh my gosh, they were just like science fiction heroes — except they were real.

DC: Tell us about the Blue Box. We know it’s a device that you used to make international calls for free, but what did you do with it?

SW: It was never my idea to sell a Blue Box — just to make one to show off. But Steve Jobs said, “Why don’t we sell these to students?” He was always short on money. So we would set up demonstrations in dorms around campus. We would knock on doors until we found someone that looked cool … so, you know, they wouldn’t turn us in. Then we would set up an appointment to come back that night. Usually a group of about 12-20 people would be in the room. I would be the master of ceremonies. I’d tell stories about what phone phreaks have done and what they could do. I’d make a demonstration Blue Box call and we would wind up calling around the world. At every single demo, we sold a Blue Box.

DC: Wow, it sounds like you could do some crazy stuff with the Blue Box. Did you pull any pranks with it?

SW: We called the Pope. I pretended to be Henry Kissinger with Richard Nixon at a summit meeting in Moscow. I said that I wanted to talk to the Pope. I reached the Bishop, who was going to be the translator, an hour later — but he had called the real Henry Kissinger. So, I was busted. We didn’t have caller ID in those days.

DC: That’s awesome. Are there any other wild experiences you had because of your phone phreaking hobby?

SW: One day, we had a Blue Box to sell to somebody in the dorms. We stopped at a pizza parlor and demonstrated it to some people there. Then they came up to our car and robbed us of it at gun point. But they left their phone number so that we could call and tell them how to use it. They wanted to pay for it but just didn’t have the money.

DC: Wow, that’s intense.

SW: [laughs] We did a lot of incredible, interesting things that people couldn’t believe.

DC: Looking back, what advice would you give graduating seniors?

SW: Don’t expect that right away — even though you’re smarter than someone else — you’re going to stand out and have better ideas and approaches. It takes a while to learn that.

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org.

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Tim Bartel/Courtesy

A California state senator proposed legislation Tuesday that would require at least one polling site on every University of California and California State University campus.

SB 240, authored by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, aims to increase levels of voting among college students by addressing the geographic concerns regarding polling sites. According to the bill’s provisions, county officials would have to locate a polling site within campus boundaries for every election.

The bill, however, does not require community colleges to have polling sites — only that county officials consider placing sites on community college campuses. According to Adam Keigwin, a spokesperson for Yee’s office, the rationale for this is that many community college students live at home and can easily vote at their neighborhood polling site.

“The goal of this bill is to get young people involved in democracy,” Keigwin said. “Anytime you make polling easier for students or young people, they show up.”

County governments are responsible for determining polling locations, which can change depending on the size of the election in question. For smaller elections, counties typically consolidate polling posts, potentially removing sites on university campuses.

Tim Dupuis, interim registrar of voters for Alameda County, said the bill would not decrease poll access for Alameda County voters despite the set number of polling sites per precinct.

UC Student Regent Jonathan Stein expressed enthusiasm for the bill, saying that it would improve student-voter turnout on campuses.

The passage of SB 240 would have little effect on UC Berkeley, as polling sites are nearly always set up on campus. During the 2012 presidential election, polling sites at UC Berkeley were located at campus residences Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Clark Kerr and the Oscar Wilde House.

Even with an abundance of polling sites on campus, peripheral location of sites can make it difficult for some students to cast their votes. For freshman Dustin Marshall, the two-hour wait he experienced during the presidential election was not too much of an issue, but for others, the wait can be a deterrent to casting their votes.

“It was my first time voting, so I was excited,” Marshall said. “I can see how someone might be upset if it wasn’t their first time voting.”

Yee’s office remains optimistic about the bill’s bipartisan support during the legislative process. Sen. Joel Anderson, R-San Diego, an early supporter of the bill, agreed to be named co-author in March if the bill’s provisions continue to apply to all elections, presidential or otherwise.

The bill will have to go through the elections committee in March and, if received favorably, will go to the Senate floor for debate in June.

Contact Christine Tyler and Matt Trejo at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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According to a UCPD crime alert released Wednesday, the victim was at the intersection of Channing Way and Dana Street when two male suspects run up to him from behind at about 5:57 a.m.  The suspects demanded the victim’s property and he handed them his wallet, the alert states.

The victim, whose affiliation to UC Berkeley is unknown, was ordered to turn and run. The suspects then fled in an unknown direction. The victim was not injured during the encounter, according to the alert.

UCPD and the Berkeley Police Department searched the area but were unable to locate the two suspects.

According to the UCPD crime alert, the suspects are described as:

Suspect #1 –  A Black male in his late 20s, 6’1” in height, 185 lbs., wearing a black beanie, a dark heavy coat and grey pants.

Suspect #2 – A Black male in his mid-20s, 5’11” in height, 160-170 lbs., with close cut black hair wearing a grey pattern sweatshirt and light blue jeans.

Chloe Hunt covers crime. Contact her at cthunt@dailycal.org.

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