Opinion

Checking on UC Extension’s recent decision to shut down its world-renowned English Language Program was a discouraging exercise. While our reporter asked ELP faculty for their views on what hit them, I called looking for an official explanation and got more than I bargained for. I reached one of UC’s ubiquitous PR people, who offered to fax me part of Extension’s Strategic Plan (Capitalization is sic throughout, and they use a lot of it). It was headlined Ensure Program Quality. When I read the second sentence, I knew we were in trouble: “ …Extension will institutionalize the process of curricular review according to the criteria of Berkeley quality that was developed during the planning process.” ELP instructors could tell the author that criteria takes a plural verb. -more-

Tom Bates’ unsuccessful attempt to sabotage the Planning Commission task force on the university’s proposed hotel, which he himself had requested only two months earlier, was unfortunately all too typical of his political style. He can’t seem to remember that Berkeley’s form of government is a weak mayor model—he’s supposed to be not much more than a councilmember-at-large, with some ceremonial responsibilities, including chairing the council meetings, and a bigger staff. He might try to get the local voters to change that, following the lead of the two Big Bad Browns who became mayors of neighboring cities after serving in Sacramento. But at this point few would say that the Brown experiments worked very well for Oakland or San Francisco, so Bates’ chances of becoming a strong mayor don’t look good. -more-