Category Archives: Op-Eds

Op-Eds

Make admissions need-based

Ten percent admission fails Texas students, perpetuates disparities

While I wholeheartedly agree with Cruz’s goals of increasing diversity on college campuses, and making college campuses more representative of the overall population, I must emphatically disagree with his assertion that the “ten percent plan is, by far, the most democratic, equal, fair and transparent admissions system of any elite university in the country.” Instead I wish to offer an alternative method, which, in my opinion, is much fairer than drawing an arbitrary cut-off line. That method can be described as affirmative action based on socioeconomic status, and not race
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Op-Eds

Bill would place added burden on UC faculty

Community service proposal in faculty tenure bill should not be mandated

Will the Harvards, Cal Techs and Stanfords out there change their tenure policy to match the UC? I doubt it. Why? Because it will place these schools at a competitive disadvantage for research funding. Placing an additional burden on the UC tenure-track faculty outside of the typical university norm would cause a faculty to commit additional time and resources and potentially distract that faculty from building up his or her laboratory, writing research grants and publishing his or her findings in scholarly journals. Is the groundbreaking work of an academic researcher not worthy enough service to the wider community?
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Op-Eds

Appreciate the art for what it is

Natural Discourse exhibit should be about art, not politics

Clearly some people have taken ‘offense’ over the use of some glass tubes in an art exhibit — SOL Grotto — which is now installed in the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley as part of a larger exhibit entitled Natural Discourse. I was saddened when some went so far as
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Op-Eds

Donation should stop athletics from overspending on campus’ dime

Reading The Daily Californian article “Cal Athletics receives $10 million donation for programs, infrastructure,” it is apparent that Cal is lucky to have such generous benefactors as Lisa and Doug Goldman.  Past donations from the Goldman family supported the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley as well as
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Op-Eds

10 percent admissions plan allows equality

UC Berkeley should adopt affirmative action plan similar to University of Texas

BAMN agrees with UC President Mark Yudof, the other UC chancellors and other university administrations nationwide who have taken a stand in defense of the University of Texas affirmative action plan. The Daily Californian editorial from Aug. 20 ignores the entire reality of the resegregation of the UC Berkeley campus
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Op-Eds

Campus thrives on global scale

Budget cuts to university, campus may compromise success if tax initiative fails to pass

Walking about campus this week, I am buoyed by the energy and vitality of our students as they flood back onto campus, filled with the excitement of studying at one of the world’s great universities. We are starting the new term basking in the glow of UC Berkeley’s all-round excellence,
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Op-Eds

Marijuana ban would protect youth, families

Schizophrenia, psychosis are among associated ailments

It is not surprising that Dan Rush would write  an article favorable to pot (“Bill’s passage would protect patient welfare,” Aug. 13), but hopefully, the majority of students will see through the smoke and realize that the “medical marijuana” is a hoax to begin with and doomed to fail. To
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Op-Eds

Bill’s passage would protect patients, jobs

Jayden is only 5 years old and suffers from a rare form of epilepsy. His father, Jason David, tearfully shares how the only relief from his son’s physical pain and life-threatening seizures is from a nonpsychoactive molecule found in cannabis, called cannabidiol.
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Op-Eds

What the Higgs boson means for the future of science

On July 4, two experiments analyzing data from the Large Hadron Collider at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) at the border of Switzerland and France announced that they had discovered a new particle, which looks similar to the long-sought Higgs boson.
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Op-Eds

Post office sale is a surrender to corporate interests

The selling off of the U.S. Postal Service properties is the latest example of the movement to corporatize what’s left of the public sector. It comes in a long line of privatization efforts — from shrinking the public school system to expanding the prison system to contracting out the U.S. military.
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