InBerkeley

University of California officials have sent letters to Japanese authorities offering to return a collection of skulls and bones from World War II to Japan, a UC Berkeley spokesman said Thursday.

…

Correspondence was sent Tuesday to the Japanese ambassador in Washington, the Japanese consul general in San Francisco, the Japanese consul general in Saipan and Japan’s War Victims Relief Bureau, said UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof.

via San Francisco Chronicle/SF Gate.

UC Berkeley

General

Opponents of a downtown Berkeley development plan say they have gathered more than enough referendum signatures to force the City Council to reconsider the plan or to put it to a citywide vote.

City Councilman Kriss Worthington, who was working with Councilman Jesse Arreguin on the issue, said the group collected about 8,000 signatures in 30 days, far more than the 5,558 signatures needed and a good cushion to offset signatures that are invalid.

via Oakland Tribune/Inside Bay Area.

Downtown, Government, Issues, Politics

When classes started Monday at UC Berkeley, protesters at the law school were demanding John Yoo’s dismissal.

The dean of the law school, Christopher Edley, has rejected calls for dismissal, saying Professor Yoo, who received tenure in 1999 before taking a leave to work for the Bush administration, is protected as a matter of academic freedom.

Is the Yoo case an instance where academic freedom principles clearly come into play or does it raise other considerations?

Brian Leiter, University of Chicago Law School, Kathleen Clark, Washington University Law School, Cary Nelson, American Association of University Professors and Carlos Villareal, National Lawyers Guild, present their views on the contentious John Yoo matter.  The general consensus seems to be that while dismissal cannot be handed down unilaterally by the dean of the law school, there is certainly plenty of reason for appropriate hearings to commence immediately.

via NYTimes.com.

Education, Issues, Politics, UC Berkeley

As concern mounts about the effects of state budget cuts on the University of California system, the latest rankings from US News & World Report makes clear just what is at stake. UC Berkeley is rated the nation’s top public university, with UCLA tied for second with the University of Virginia, and UC San Diego tied for seventh with the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Berkeley ranks 21st on the overall list of “national universities”, which combines private and public institutions. Princeton and Harvard tie for first on the list.

General, UC Berkeley

Bollywood dance is hot in Berkeley — and the success of Ishaara (above), a team of dancers from UC, that drew standing ovations on TV’s America’s Got Talent with its interpretation of Slumdog Millionaire’s “Jai Ho” — can only mean the number of enthusiasts will grow.

According to the Contra Costa Times, dance classes and Bollywood nights are popping up in community centers and nightclubs around the Bay Area — and corporations like Cisco and Oracle are even hosting classes at their in-house exercise centers.

Berkeley’s YWCA is the place to go for weekly Bollywood dance classes.

Read the full story here.

[Berkeley Bollywood dance group, Ishaara, shines on America's Got Talent -- 07.22.09]

Arts, Music Bollywood dance, Ishaara

Pure democracy and representative democracy continue to duke it out on the streets of Berkeley as the petition drive to bring the downtown Berkeley development plan to a vote of the people approaches today’s deadline to reach 5558 valid signatures. Opponents to the petition include many political and business leaders, who have been unusually vocal in their support of the current plan and have mounted a strong defensive campaign against against the petition drive. Proponents of the referendum are reported to be paying some signature gatherers $2 per signature while complaining about tactics being used to deter signers.

Opponents of a downtown Berkeley development plan were still on the streets Wednesday gathering the 5,558 signatures needed by Thursday to put the plan to a citywide vote.

City Councilman Jesse Arreguin, 25, who is behind the campaign to overturn the Downtown Area Plan, which allows for taller buildings, more housing density, more open space and which imposes green building requirements, said he is “cautiously optimistic” his group has enough signatures to go forward.

via Berkeley Voice/Inside Bay Area.

Architecture, Business, Downtown, Politics