Photo by Flickr user looseends
The Berkeley Graduate is on vacation. We will return with regular posting at the start of the fall semester. Have a wonderful last few weeks of summer!
The Graduate Women’s Project is sponsoring a contest to find cover art for the updated Graduate Women’s Resource Guide. Submit your drawing, painting, photograph, or graphic image related to women and community by Friday, July 30, at 5 pm. The lucky winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to the University Press Bookstore.
Are you looking for part-time work for the coming year? The GA is trying to fill two positions, the Graduate Global Development Project Coordinator and the Chief of Staff to the Vice President of Campus Affairs, as soon as possible. View the complete job postings here.
The Graduate Global Development Project (GGD) is a new position devoted to connecting graduate students who are interested in global health and development with each other and relevant resources on the UC Berkeley campus. The GGD’s goal is to foster a vibrant, multi-disciplinary community of students and faculty whose work relates to global development. The project coordinator’s responsibilities will include:
- developing opportunities for students interested in global health and development to meet, learn, and collaborate,
- connecting interested graduate students with opportunities to get involved in global development research and training,
- organizing, in collaboration with campus centers and student groups, an annual UC Berkeley Global Engagement Day,
- identifying and publicizing relevant coursework, funding, and internship opportunities on campus,
- and, participating in the development of campus norms with respect to global engagement.
Qualified candidates should be current UC Berkeley graduate students, knowledgeable about international issues, able to plan large events and network with the campus community, have experience fundraising for events, be organized and have good communication skills. The project coordinator will work 14 hours a week over a 10-month period and receives a $896 monthly stipend. To apply or for a complete job description, please email Elizabeth De la Torre at projects@ga.berkeley.edu.
The Chief of Staff (COS) to the Campus Affairs Vice President (CAVP) works closely with the CAVP to identify and resolve campus-level issues facing UC Berkeley’s graduate student population. The COS’s responsibilities include:
- attending GA meetings with the CAVP and taking minutes during these meetings,
- planning campus affairs committee meetings,
- and, working in collaboration with the CAVP and the Assistant Dean of Student to select committee members to review applications for the Faculty Mentor Award.
Candidates should be current UC Berkeley graduate students, knowledgable about the GA, responsive to email, able to attend meetings on short notice, strong writing and interpersonal skills, well organized and comfortable with multi-tasking. This is a 10-month position, requiring approximately 10-12 hours of work per week, with a $600 monthly stipend. For more information or to apply, please email cavp@ga.berkeley.edu.
Photo from TheBittenWord.com
When I’m not writing this blog, I am an avid, some might say compulsive, blog reader. One of the blogs I read regularly for cooking inspiration is The Kitchn. So you can imagine my excitement this morning when I received an email from their managing editor saying that later in the day they would be posting a question I had sent in about finding BPA-free canned tomatoes. With the growing concern about BPA in food products, I’ve switched to metal water bottles and started buying the one brand of canned beans that does not use BPA in its liners, but I haven’t been able to find a good alternative to canned tomatoes. You can find out what the blog editor and readers suggested I do here.
The Kitchn is always serving up tasty-looking recipes. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve tried two that I was very happy with. If you’re looking for some yummy, seasonal dessert ideas, consider their poached apricots or strawberry milkshakes. The apricots were sweet enough for dessert, but seemed healthy enough to eat again for lunch the next day. And while I can’t say anything about the health benefits of a milkshake lunch, I certainly won’t judge you if you go that route.
Photo by flickr user 3liz4
One year and eighty three posts later, we’ve arrived at the first anniversary of the Berkeley Graduate blog! Thanks to everyone who has contributed their writing, ideas, and experiences, and thanks especially to all our readers.
Then as now, this is a blog for and by Berkeley’s graduate and professional student community. In the coming year, we hope to continue to refine and develop our content to make this a more useful, informative, and enjoyable resource. Any suggestions on how we can better serve you are greatly appreciated.
Photo from flickr user IsakAronsson
After yesterday’s loss to Ghana, the US is out of the World Cup, but there are many exciting matches still to come in the lead up to the final on July 11th. If you’ve got World Cup fever, but have to be on campus during the games, the Free Speech Movement Cafe may offer the perfect solution. On game days, they’re showing the matches beginning at 7 am. So grab that paper you have to read, pick up a cup of coffee, and settle in to enjoy the game. It’s a win-win solution!
There’s a new study space on campus especially for doctoral candidates. The Graduate Division and Doe Library’s Graduate Services have created a Dissertation Writer’s Room, which opened its doors for the first time this morning. The Dissertation Writer’s Room, located in 215 Doe at the back of Graduate Services, is reserved for students who wish to work quietly on their dissertations. Currently, it has table space for six in addition to two reading chairs. More work spaces will be added as use grows.
To access the Dissertation Writer’s Room, you must go through Graduate Services, which is located in 208 Doe. Because this study area and library are reserved for graduate student, faculty, and staff use, you’ll need to show your Berkeley ID when you enter. The hours for the newly minted Dissertation Writer’s Room are Monday through Thursday, 9 am to 9 pm; Friday, 9 am to 5 pm; and Sunday, 1 pm to 9 pm. Happy writing!
Photo from flickr user Mazaletel
Last summer, first-time chicken owner and Berkeley post-doc, Tana Wood, walked us through the ins and outs of urban chicken ownership. Nearly a year later, we caught up with Tana again, who reported that raising your own chickens is more challenging than she and her housemates realized at the start of their experiment in urban farming.
Chickens, it turns out, are messier, more destructive, and trickier than they first seemed. First, the amount of chicken poop soon got out of hand, requiring daily maintenance. “The yard became a mine field,” said Tana. Second, although the chickens did relatively little damage to the garden in the first few months, they destroyed it in a matter of weeks once they began laying and their appetites increased. And third, with free range of the backyard, the chickens and their eggs proved to be elusive. The chickens frequently moved their nest, leading to many an unplanned egg hunt. Tana also learned that chickens do not stay put when they suspect the grass is greener in the neighbor’s yard. One chicken set out to explore the neighborhood and was gone for three days.
Because of these problems, the biggest change Tana and her housemates have made is to move their five chickens into an enclosure, which they have found to be a huge improvement. Using PVC and plastic chicken wire they constructed a 10 x 15 foot enclosure around the coop with a door for easy human access, an addition that cost about $100. For another $90 they added a roof made out of PVC and plastic corrugated paneling to provide shade on sunny days and shelter on rainy days. To keep poop clean-up to a minimum, they cover the inside with hay (about $12 a bale at the Biofuel Oasis), which the chickens love; at the end of the week they can either compost the hay or use it as mulch on the garden. They also keep a pine-litter-filled tray under the chickens’ roost, which helps contain the poop and the smell. Inside the enclosure they’ve added a dirt box, so the chickens can take the dirt baths they need to stay clean and pest free. Rounding out the chickens’ new home, Tana added two nests, which she made from Booda cat litter boxes by enlarging the openings and lining them with hay.
Finally, what was just annoying last summer – waking up at 6 am each day to let the chickens out and getting home at dark to lock them up for the night – soon became a burden and also made it harder to find people willing to look after the chickens. To solve this problem, Tana installed an automatic chicken coop door that operates on a timer. For Tana, this door was well worth the $120 it cost; with it in place, the coop is automatically opened at dawn and closed one hour after dusk.
While raising chickens can been fun and rewarding, keep in mind that it’s not always easy.
College of Natural Resources graduation
The Berkeley Graduate extends hearty congratulations to all of the 2010 graduates. And to those who will be here a little while longer, we wish you a summer that is either productive or restful or both.
It may be finals week, but there’s still plenty happening on campus that you won’t want to miss.
First, the Grad Assembly (GA) is looking to hire two graduate students for the 2010-2011 school year to serve as the project coordinators for the Women of Color Initiative (WOCI) project and the Graduate Minority Outreach, Recruitment, and Retention (GMORR) project. WOCI focuses its programming on creating a safe and open space for women of color on campus through brown bag speakers and the Empowering Women of Color Conference, and also collaborates with the Graduate Women’s Project. GMORR focuses on bridging the gap between undergraduate and graduate students in order to promote higher education, career planning, and mentoring. For complete job descriptions and stipend amounts email projects@ga.berkeley.edu or theberkeleygraduate@ga.berkeley.edu. But act fast, since applications are due Wednesday, May 12 at noon.
Second, celebrate the successful completion of another semester with an ice cream social. Three of the GA projects will be serving free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream sundaes Wednesday, May 12, from 3:00-4:30 on the patio at Anthony Hall. It’s first come, first served, so come close to 3 to ensure you get your sugar fix.
And finally, the Career Center is giving a presentation on how to find and think about postdocs strategically. This talk, which is appropriate for graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and engineering, will be held Thursday, May 13, from 5:00-6:15 in 100 Wheeler.