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Education
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- Written by: Editor
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences this week announced at the University of California, Berkeley, a new initiative – The Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education – to advocate for the importance of public colleges and universities.
As key engines of economic growth, innovation, and upward mobility, these schools are facing fundamental challenges from cutbacks in government support, competition from for-profit education providers and foreign universities, and emerging technological changes.
The American Academy also announced that UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau has agreed to lead the project and will be a senior visiting scholar at the academy when he steps down as chancellor on June 1.
Birgeneau also will return to teaching and research at UC Berkeley after nine years of service as chancellor.
The Lincoln Project is named for President Abraham Lincoln to commemorate his role in signing in 1862 the Morrill Act, which laid the groundwork for the nation’s unparalleled public university system.
An overarching goal of the project will be to assess the implications of the forces that threaten public higher education and to develop recommendations to preserve the strength and diversity of colleges and universities.
The initiative will engage state and federal policymakers, elected officials, university and business leaders, philanthropists, learned societies, and ultimately, the broad public.
It will reinforce the work of other organizations and advocacy groups concerned with these issues.
“Chancellor Birgeneau is a dynamic and highly respected leader in higher education, having led key public universities – the University of Toronto in Canada and UC Berkeley in the U.S.,” said American Academy President Leslie C. Berlowitz. “He has been outspoken about the right of all qualified students to have access to excellence at our public colleges and universities.”
Birgeneau has launched initiatives at UC Berkeley that are models for public colleges and universities elsewhere, including a grant-based financial aid plan for middle class families and scholarships and support for undocumented students.
Berlowitz made the announcement during the academy symposium, “The Benefit of Public Investment in Higher Education: California and Beyond,” that is being held today at UC Berkeley in honor of Birgeneau, one of the panelists.
Other participants include Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan; Henry E. Brady, dean of UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy; and Robert D. Haas, chairman emeritus of Levi Strauss & Co.
“Public disinvestment and escalating costs are increasingly threatening our vaunted system of public higher education,” Birgeneau said. “Without bold steps to stabilize the financial model of our public universities, hundreds of thousands of deserving students will be denied access to a better life and the country’s ability to innovate, create jobs, and support a strong economy will be severely compromised.”
He added that as an independent, nonpartisan, and cross-institutional organization, the American Academy is ideally suited to sponsor such a study.
“America’s system of higher education, both public and private, has long given America a decisive competitive advantage in the global economy,” Berlowitz said. “Public universities have provided a special pathway for immigrants and new generations of learners in America. Today, the ability of the system to maintain high quality and access for all qualified applicants is at risk.”
The academy has assembled a group of senior advisors to guide the initiative.
Confirmed participants include Lawrence S. Bacow, former president of Tufts University; Gene Block, chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles; Henry E. Brady, dean of Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy; Nancy E. Cantor, chancellor and president of Syracuse University; John T. Casteen III, former president of the University of Virginia; Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan; Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of The City University of New York; Robert D. Haas, chairman emeritus of Levi Strauss & Co.; William Powers, Jr., president of the University of Texas at Austin; Gerald Rosenfeld, Senior Advisor and Vice Chairman of U.S. Investment Banking at Lazard Ltd.; and Frank D. Yeary, chairman of CamberView Partners LLC.
The academy will organize a series of national conferences and engage leaders in government and industry who influence education policy at the state, federal, and institutional levels. The academy has received initial support for the planned three-year project from public and private sources.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The new Lake County Rocket Club is about to blast off.
Are you a student in grades fourth through eighth who would like to learn how to build and fly model rockets? Then this club is for you.
Membership in this free club is limited to 20 students but is open to any Lake County student.
The Rocket Club will meet every Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Taylor Observatory-Norton Planetarium, at 5725 Oak Hills Lane in Kelseyville.
The deadline for registration is Feb. 15.
Register online at http://www.lakecoe.org/calendar/details/lake_county_rocket_club_about_to_blast_off/2013-02-15
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The Rocket Club will be led by Bill Bordisso, retired Konocti Unified teacher and long-time aerospace enthusiast.
He plans to cover concepts of flight as well as hands-on time to build (and launch!) model rockets.
The Children's Museum of Art and Science (CMAS) is donating the start up money to cover the costs of the rocket kits and other teaching materials.
Anyone interested in volunteering or making a donation to support this club is encouraged to contact Carolynn Jarrett at 707-994-2878.
CMAS appreciates the support of the Lake County Office of Education and Barbara McIntyre, coordinator of the Taylor Observatory, in bringing this opportunity to the youth of Lake County.
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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA) will have its meeting and lunch on Tuesday, Feb. 12.
The group will meet at 9:45 a.m. at the Taylor Observatory-Norton Planetarium, 5725 Oak Hills Lane, in Kelseyville.
Barbara McIntyre, the director of the observatory, will be the program presenter.
All retired educators are invited. Non-members of CalRTA, who plan to attend, please RSVP to 707-279-2625.
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- Written by: Jesse Harrell
This week we’d like to start off by thanking Mike Boyce and the Clearlake Machine Shop for fixing Carlé's coffee mug press for free, accepting no money for his time.
What he did was an extremely nice thing for us and we would just like to let him know how much we appreciate what he did, especially since it wasn’t something easy to fix and it took quite a bit of time.
In addition, Mike and his fellows have repeatedly helped their community and show way more than people realize how we all work together to make our community a better place. Our local small businesses go out of their way repeatedly for the schools.
On Tuesday, Jan. 22, the hazmat (hazardous materials) course here at Carlé came to a close. Science teacher Angie Siegel was the course instructor.
Seventeen students were trained to become state certified at the HazMat First Responder Operations level, so if a case were to arise they would be ready to respond to a hazardous materials release.
Among those that need HazMat FRO training are firefighters, police officers, medical personnel, truckers and other workers who might encounter a hazardous materials release.
Two men graciously gave the hazmat students here at Carlé their time; these men were firefighter Mark Hill and Fire Chief Willie Sapeta. Hill and Sapeta both trained the students in hazmat protocol.
Hill, a hazmat specialist and paramedic/engineer, taught the kids how to use several standard tools used in hazmat incidents. The tools that were covered were the dregor tube, CGI meters (combustible gas indictors), and the chameleon wrist bands (which change color when in the presence of chemicals).
Fire Chief Sapeta, who has been working with Carlé students for more than 16 years, gave the students a lecture and a general overview of information covered in the HazMat FRO course, teaching the basics of what they needed to know for the field exercise that was performed.
Hill and Sapeta took the kids through a step-by-step training process and supervised a hazmat field exercise. During the exercise the students participated in a simulated decontamination corridor activity. Students who volunteered were given a chance to experience life in a level Level B HazMat suit.
All in all the course was a great learning experience for those who took it, including Cody Beers, Jay Brown, Nura Brown, Cameron Carrillo, Chelsea Cherney, Paige Finely, Junior Garcia, Summer Gunn, Joshua Kennedy, Marla Mitchell, James Mora, Mayra Pentoja, Marco Antonio Rosiles, Roxie Purdum-White, Lucas Stickel, Carlos Trujillo, and Trevor Wilson.
Congratulations to each and every one of you, you should most certainly be proud of yourselves.
Congratulations to the Student of the Week, Emilio Gonzales. Emilio is a very hard working and diligent student, we here are very proud of him and are filled with joy to give him this award. As usual he’ll receive a free DJ’s small pizza and a front of the lunch line pass.
Another winner is Andrew Subjack, who won the CHILY this week. He chose a blanket.
We’d like to send a very big “get well soon” to our principal, Dr. Jim Burger. Recently Dr. Burger became quite ill so we just wanted to show our love and support towards him. We hope that you begin to feel much better soon, and we can’t wait to see you back here at Carlé in full force Dr. Burger.
Finally, on Friday, Barbara, Alan and Angie made the difficult but correct decision to put student favorite Scabby the dog down. He was found and rescued during community service with Russell Rustici almost 13 years ago. The next article will tell the much-loved Scabby story.
Jesse Harrell attends Carlé Continuation High School in Lower Lake, Calif.