UC Berkeley

Eight activists who participated in Occupy protests at UC Berkeley last fall have been banned from campus. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Paul Seeman on Tuesday barred the UC Berkeley students, community members and alumni from campus except when going to class or to work there. Protesters must stay away 100 to 300 yards from all UC property… Full article at http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-news/ci_20217337/judge-bans-uc-berkeley-occupy-protesters-from-campus 

An earlier post on this blog noted that a UC-Berkeley administrator who granted large pay increases to a boyfriend/subordinate seemed to have received slap-on-the-wrist discipline for the action when it came to light. The drama is apparently continuing:A growing chorus of voices is calling for the firing of a UC Berkeley administrator who helped triple her secret sex partner’s pay over five years. Calling Diane Leite’s punishment “an affront” to the university, several UC Berkeley professors have asked the school’s provost to investigate how the matter was handled. They are aghast that, instead of firing her, the university reassigned Leite from…

The University of California, Berkeley, has demoted and reduced the salary of a veteran administrator accused of improperly giving pay raises to an employee with whom she was having a sexual relationship. Diane Leite, 47, a former assistant vice chancellor in the Research Enterprise Services department, pushed through five raises in two years for Jonathan Caniezo…  Caniezo, a 30-year-old purchasing manager, saw his pay rise from less than $70,000 in 2007 to more than $110,000 in 2010, according to university records obtained by the newspaper.  Caniezo’s direct supervisor had opposed the raises, arguing that he had not earned them, according to a report by school investigators…  After…

Devra Breslow pointed me to this NY Times article on how UC-Berkeley sold a million dollar artwork for $150: (excerpt) Everybody misplaces something sometime. But it is not easy for the University of California, Berkeley, to explain how it lost a 22-foot-long carved panel by a celebrated African-American sculptor, or how, three years ago, it mistakenly sold this work, valued at more than a million dollars, for $150 plus tax.  The university’s embarrassing loss eventually enabled the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, a large museum and research center in San Marino, Calif., to acquire its first major work…

Apparently, various “Occupy” demonstrations are still going on at UC-Berkeley: Protesters from Occupy Oakland converged on UC Berkeley Saturday evening, the day after 18 Occupy Cal protesters were detained when their encampment was cleared from in front of Doe Library.  About 40 protesters from Oakland marched down Telegraph Avenue, eventually reaching the International House on Piedmont Avenue at around 11 p.m. An “Occupy the Truth” conference is being held this weekend at International House, and protesters set up five tents to show solidarity with the conference. House administration agreed to let the encampment remain on the lawn overnight as long…

From the Contra Costa Times: Protesters occupying the UC Berkeley’s anthropology library on campus claimed victory Saturday night when university administrators signed an agreement meeting the protesters’ demands for a fully restored library schedule.  …Under the agreement, the library will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 1 to 6 p.m. on weekends, the same hours that were kept in the Fall 2011 semester. As part of the agreement, administrators also will hire a full-time librarian… Full story at http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_19793290 Music and poetry at: