Tag: UC Berkeley

Defiant Harvard Vows to Continue to Use Race in Admissions Decisions

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Harvard University said it plans to continue to use race as a factor in admissions in the wake of the 6-3 Supreme Court decision last week that ruled affirmative action enrollment decisions are unconstitutional.

A June 29 memo to the Harvard community from President Lawrence Bacow and more than a dozen deans and provosts cited a line in the ruling that states colleges and universities may consider in admissions decisions “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

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Berkeley University Suspends New Research Projects with Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei

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One of the world’s top research universities, the University of California, Berkeley, has stopped new research projects with Huawei Technologies, the embattled Chinese telecommunications giant. The university’s suspension, which took effect on January 30, came after the U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against the corporation and some of its affiliates two days earlier. The department announced a 13-count indictment against Huawei, accusing it of stealing trade secrets, obstruction of justice, violations of economic sanctions and wire fraud. Vice Chancellor for Research Randy Katz said in a letter addressed to the Chancellor’s cabinet members the campus would continue to honor existing commitments with Huawei that provide funding for current research projects. Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, has been under house arrest in Canada since December 1 for allegedly deceiving U.S. banks into clearing funds for a subsidiary that interacted with Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. Her extradition to the U.S. is pending. Meng’s arrest has prompted some observers to question whether her detention was an attempt to pressure China in its ongoing trade war with the U.S. She is the daughter of the corporation’s founder, a relationship that places her among the most influential corporate executives in…

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UC Berkeley Limits Free Speech … Again

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by Troy Worden   The University of California at Berkeley, regarded as the birthplace of the free speech movement, has done away with one of its historic “free speech zones.”Carol Christ, chancellor of UC Berkeley, last month e-mailed a statement to students, faculty, and staff detailing changes to the university’s policy regarding free speech events on campus.Among the changes is designation of the West Crescent section of campus as a “free speech zone,” meaning it will not be subject to additional restrictions imposed last year on other areas of campus.But Christ also announced that Lower Sproul Plaza, which historically has been considered a free speech zone, along with Upper Sproul Plaza, now will be subject to those restrictions. The restrictions are part of the university’s “Major Events Policy” implemented in the wake of conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos’ aborted “Free Speech Week” event in September 2017. The new policy was proposed by a commission upon review of the Yiannopoulos incident and several other hotly contested events featuring conservative speakers invited in 2017, among them David Horowitz, Ann Coulter, and Ben Shapiro. Christ’s announcement Sept. 10 is in line with the April report of the commission, which recommended the chancellor extend the…

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