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There once was a popular Indian teacher named Papa G, who drew students from far and wide. People flocked to see him and hear his words of wisdom. One lucky man who was able to attend one of his retreats spoke to Papa G, with camera in hand. The visitor asked the guru what he’d like to say to the multitudes all around the world vying to come to India to see him. Papa G smiled an impish grin and said, “Stay home.” Papa G’s words remind me a bit of Dorothy, who journeyed all around Oz, only to find...

Last week, ABC 7′s I-Team produced a troubling report about a surge in extreme drinking so far this year at UC Berkeley. According to the investigation, UC Berkeley has seen an increase in the number of students who get so drunk, often at frat parties, that they need to be taken to the hospital for care. This has, at times, put a significant burden on the city’s ambulance services, leaving other city residents waiting for care, or requiring the Berkeley Fire Department to call for help from other paramedics in the region. It also puts pressure on the hospital closest...

November 8, 2013 12:38 PM UC-Berkeley Students Ban Use of 'Illegal Immigrant' By Andrew Johnson The University of California–Berkeley student government unanimously passed a resolution banning the term “illegal immigrant” from the body’s official discourse. The resolution is the second such measure to be passed since former Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano took over as president of the UC system. The Berkeley student government showed its support for the “drop the I-word” campaign, deeming the term “racially charged,” according to the College Fix. “The ‘I’ word is legally inaccurate since being out of status is a civil rather than criminal...

When you cover ersatz intellectuals day in and day out as we do here at Accuracy in Academia, it is refreshing to meet genuine scholars. About the only opportunity we get to do so is at meetings of the Philadelphia Society, a group of conservative intellectuals formed in 1964 in the wake of the defeat of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. The ladies and gentlemen who belong to the society gathered in Atlanta in October for a regional meeting. Among the many insights shared by the august line-up of speakers who addressed the gathering, here are a few highlights: “Whenever I...

The swimming pool at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, Calif., was shut down last Wednesday, after city officials said the level of chemicals in the water exceeded normal operating conditions, Berkeleyside reported. The decision was made after parents delivered a letter to the school’s principle the day before, expressing concern over the health of students on the water polo team. According to the letter, the players were displaying some disturbing symptoms, such as burning eyes, bleached hair, and even the disappearance of body hair.

<p>Regents consider $620,000 in seismic upgrades and other fixes to Blake House that could ultimately mean UC executives' return to living in the Contra Costa County mansion.</p> <p>Blake House, the Northern California mansion that is intended to be the official residence of the University of California system president, may be coming back to life.</p>

The Los Angeles Times recently published a devastating case study in the malign effects of academic racial preferences. The University of California, Berkeley, followed the diversocrat playbook to the letter in admitting Kashawn Campbell, a South Central Los Angeles high-school senior, in 2012: It disregarded his level of academic preparation, parked him in the black dorm — the “African American Theme Program” — and provided him with a black-studies course. The results were thoroughly predictable. After his first semester, reports the Times: [Kashawn] had barely passed an introductory science course. In College Writing 1A, his essays — pockmarked with misplaced...

The illiberalism of student radicalism in the 1960s shaped the world we live in today.SDS leader Mark Rudd at a Columbia University protest, 1968It is now 45 years since that momentous year 1968, one of the turning points of contemporary world culture, if not quite of contemporary politics. Not unlike 1848–49 in Europe, 1968 was marked by events that involved student and political protests in several places. There was a dire sense of crescendo and momentum: the heightening of protest against the Vietnam War, the violent turn of the civil-rights movement, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the utopian libertinism...

ItÂ’s commencement season. College seniors across the country are donning mortarboards, getting misty-eyed and preparing to face the realities of President Barack ObamaÂ’s sparkling economic recovery. The Daily Caller is a little misty-eyed, too, because college students will soon disperse from campuses for a long summer, which likely means far fewer stories about stupid and otherwise outrageous occurrences on campus. The time is right, then, to celebrate the academic year that was. Here are the 20 stupidest, most outrageous and most cringe-worthy campus moments of 2012-13. Florida Atlantic University: Worst university in AmericaWhat an embarrassing year for Florida Atlantic. The...

Earlier this week, readers reacted with skepticism after Berkeley City Councilman Gordon Wozniak suggested that taxing email might be one way to raise money for the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service. … But there’s a history to this idea, however outlandish as it might sound to some. The United Nations Development Program examined such a tax in its 1999 Human Development Report, Globalization With a Human Face, as a way to fund “the global communications revolution.” UNDP calculated that in 1996, such a tax would have raised $70 billion globally. The New York Times took a brief look at the concept...

A troop of turkeys goes house-hunting in Berkeley While the suburban residents of Concord try to deal with that wayward camel at commute time, the folks in quiet Albany are battling their own random creatures. We came across this fun news item this morning from CBS, which explains how a dozen or so wild turkeys are overrunning the small town of Albany with their annoying gobbles, clucks, and cackles. Interestingly enough, the turkey troops showed up after Thanksgiving and have overstayed their welcome. Parents are worried these wild birds will try to take on their children (sounds like a Stephen...

BERKELEY, Calif.—The University of California, Berkeley says a $1 million gift will help provide scholarships to nearly 200 students who are illegal immigrants

The student government at the University of California-Berkeley (CAL) passed a resolution last month that would ban Salvation Army bell ringers and their iconic red kettles from campus this Christmas because of the Christian organization’s alleged bias against homosexuality. UC Berkeley is "reviewing" whether or not they will prohibit the Salvation Army from operating on campus this Christmas, after students passed a resolution condemning the charity. The resolution, cleared on November 14, accuses the charity of openly discriminating against gay individuals. “Salvation Army church services, including charity services, are available only to people ‘who accept and abide by the Salvation...

Debate 1 is over, and the pundits have declared Mitt Romney the victor. The only remaining question is: was his victory overwhelming, or did Romney only win because Obama didn’t? That is today’s story. But will it be the way we tell it after November 7? On the surface it seems set in stone: Romney was crisp, Obama slow on the uptake. Romney made jokes, Obama swallowed them. Romney was the man with the plan. But…could it be that, in the end, what happened on October 3 will stay on October 3, and have no effect on the future? Could...

Berkeley on Tuesday became what is thought to be the nation's first city to officially proclaim a day recognizing bisexuals, a sexual minority that often complains of being derided as sexually confused fence-sitters. The City Council unanimously and without discussion declared Sept. 23 as Bisexual Pride and Bi Visibility Day. Since 1999, bisexual activists have claimed the date to celebrate their community, and bisexual pride events routinely are held in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and other cities... Berkeley, however, is believed to be the first U.S. city where a government body has taken the extra step of to formally acknowledge...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Berkeley public high school considers cancelling its Advanced Placement classes because too many white students are succeeding Human Events reports:The Berkeley (CA) Board of Education will consider whether or not to cancel before and after school Science Labs for Advanced Placement Science classes at Berkeley High School because the classes are attended largely by white students. The proposal is aimed at addressing “Berkeley’s dismal racial achievement gap.”Berkeley’s AP Science courses are an outstanding success. In a time when we are constantly reminded of the need for American students to get better at Physics, Biology, and Chemistry,...

Mitt Romney has turned into such a skilled debater that he could trounce President Barack Obama in their three head-to-head encounters in the run-up to the election, former Democratic Labor Secretary Robert Reich believes. Romney “is going to be debating somebody who is not nearly as good a debater as his reputation,” Reich tells Atlantic Magazine in its September issue. He says that under live questioning, Obama “can seem kind of wooden” and “at a loss for words.” “Even if Romney is scripted and not spontaneous, he will come across as ‘on his game,’ ” Reich tells the Atlantic. “The...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: George Lakoff (rhymes with). Bill Jacobson has the details at LegalInsurrection.com. By now you have heard the Obama and Liz Warren speeches about how no one got rich on his or her own. ... This narrative is cribbed almost verbatim from the narrative of George Lakoff, a progressive [liberal] linguistics activist and Professor at Berkeley," and he has been advising the Democrats on how to change and use language in order to hide who they really are. That's what it boils down to. Lakoff advises Democrats on how to say things that mask and cover up who...

The student government at Berkeley University allocated $982 of student funds earlier this year to send a delegation of "queer and Latin" individuals to a conference designed to "educate and empower queer people of color."Berkeley's Young Queers United For Empowerment (YQUFE), the organization that received the funds via a student senate bill, describes itself on its Facebook as serving "those who identify as queer and Latin." The funds were allocated out of the student government’s “contingency fund” for conference fees, renting vans and “two queen beds,” for the 25 individuals expected to attend the conference, which took place at California...

BERKELEY – Times are tough on Telegraph Avenue, the notoriously countercultural and once-thriving street leading to the heart of the University of California campus here. The five-block stretch of Telegraph that ends at the southern edge of campus gained its legacy from the protests and social upheaval of the Sixties. It was the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement in 1964 and a hub of protest during the Vietnam War. About 40 percent of students polled by a campus group last year said they get food on Telegraph and half said they visit less than once a month for any...