California magazine blog

Guests of the Ayatollah

The three Cal alums who were detained in Iran after apparently straying across the border from Kurdistan have now been in captivity for 61 days. Vigils will be held nationwide for the trio, including this evening in Berkeley. To learn more about the latest developments in their plight visit www.freethehikers.org.

A New Morrill Act?

Robert Birgeneau and Frank Yeary, the chancellor and vice-chancellor, respectively, of UC Berkerley have an opinion piece in the Washington Post in which they argue for federal support of state public universities -- something reminiscent of Abraham's Lincoln's Morrill Act, which gave us the so-called land grant universities (of which Berkeley is one). In lieu of free land, however, they envision federal grants and matching funds coming from the capitol. 

Washington would provide sufficient additional funding for operations and student support to ensure broad access and continued excellence at these universities. A portion of these resources would ensure that out-of-state and in-state students pay the same tuition and have access to the same financial aid packages. The combined federal-state funding must be sufficient for these universities to maintain their preeminence as well as charge moderate fees to all U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

Philanthropy must continue to be an important resource. To ensure stability, the federal government should agree to match, at a rate of 2-to-1, and the state government at 1-to-1, private endowment funds raised by these public universities for 10 years. If such a public-private partnership raised private philanthropy of $150 million per year, the university would have $6 billion contributed toward a new endowment at the end of 10 years. The payout from this new federal-state endowment would provide operating and other support such as need-based scholarships and would essentially secure excellence and access for a generation.

While Birgeneau and Yeary acknowledge that the devil would be in the details of any such plan (starting with which institutions would receive such assistance), they also argue that such a move is crucial if the great public universities are to survive in their traditional form. "While America is fortunate to have many great private universities," they write, "we do not need to add to the list by privatizing Berkeley, Illinois, Rutgers, etc. On the contrary, we need to keep our public research and teaching universities excellent and accessible to the vast majority of Americans."

Don Fisher Dies at 81

Gap Inc. co-founder and 2007 Alumnus of the Year, Don Fisher '50, succumbed to a long battle with cancer on Sunday. He was 81 years of age.

News of his death comes just days after the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art announced plans to house Donald and Doris Fisher's impressive art collection -- some 1,100 works all told, including pieces by Andy Warhol, Richard Diebenkorn and Chuck Close -- in a dedicated wing of the museum.

A Lowell High School grad, Fisher was a star on the Cal swimming and water polo squads. In his memoirs he recounted being caught cheating on an exam by his professor, University president-to-be, Clark Kerr. Kerr failed Fisher but did not expel him. Fisher called that decision an "act of mercy" for which he remained eternally grateful. Perhaps not surprising, Fisher has been a generous donor to his alma mater across the years. In 1995, he gave $5 million to establish the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Planning and the Fisher Center for the Strategic Use of Information Technology at the Haas School of Business.

"I didn't plan to go into the clothing business," Fisher once told California. "I was just fortunate to have a bit of bad luck." The serendipitous moment came when Fisher tried and failed to return a pair of Levis for ones that actually fit him. Frustrated by the lack of selection then available, he and his wife Doris decided to open their own store in San Francisco. Doris took the name from "generation gap." Since then the iconic retailer has grown to include other brands, including Banana Republic and Old Navy.

Citing both his business success and his philanthropic efforts, Fisher's friend and fellow Cal alum, the financier Warren Hellman called him a "damn good role model for people coming out of Cal in the future."

Mr. Fisher is survived by his wife; brothers Jim and Bob; sons Bill, John and Bob; and 10 grandchildren.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

The Bay Area's buzzing with news of a new non-profit media venture -- one that combines $5 million in seed money from former Alum of the Year Warren Hellman '55 with the efforts and expertise of the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, KQED Public Radio and veteran Bay Area journalists who will staff the project. What's more, Hellman's group has apparently been in talks with the New York Times about, as the Times itself reports, "supplying reporting to a San Francisco edition that the paper plans to start." Question is: Will that development spell the end of the already beleagured San Francisco Chronicle. It could. Hellman tells the Times: “I think that’s a reasonable question. I think that demise might be inevitable, anyway. This might put journalism, broadly defined, on a much more stable foundation.”

Readers of California will find a long feature on how the Berkeley j-school is reorienting itself to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by the fast-changing media landscape in our upcoming Winter edition -- the first in our new quarterly format. Look for it in your mailbox and then tell us what you think.

Walkout

Busy day for the Sproul Steps as students, faculty and staff join together to protest steep tuition hikes, enrollment cuts, layoffs, furloughs, and increased class sizes -- changes which have largely come in response to some $800 million cut from state funding for the UC system.

The latest of issue of California, which will reach readers soon, addresses many of these issues. In particular, an article by veteran reporter John Wildermuth wonders at the seeming lack of public outrage over recent threats to the University. He writes:

"With the rising cost of a UC education, growing selectivity at the various campuses, and the eagerness of University officials to compare their schools to elite private universities like Harvard and Yale rather than to other public universities, it's the little wonder that more and more Californians are thinking that they and their children don't have a place at UC. And if those people don't feel a link to the UC system, why should they be concerned about the troubles it faces?"

If you're a concerned citizen or alum who wants to know more about the issues at play in this crisis, you could do worse than listen to yesterday's Forum discussion hosted by KQED's Michael Krasny, embedded below.