Photo by Darren Hester

It’s a sad truism that if you are a graduate student, you are probably in debt.  While rumors of Obama forgiving all student loans floated around during his campaign, realistically it was unlikely to happen. Still, it was with eager anticipation that I read all of the news sources I could find about the overhaul of the student lending laws.

The Christian Science Monitor helpfully offered a run-down of key components of the legislation:

* Improved repayment options! New borrowers can cap their repayments at 10%, down from 15%.  Sadly, this is only for new borrowers, so it doesn’t apply to my old debts.

* A streamlined federal loan system! So, all loans now originate from the same source. No real change here.

* Competitive loan servicing! Wait, this means we get better customer service? So they will be nicer to me when they tell me to pay up?

* Support to stay in school and manage debt! $750 million for classes on financial literacy for low-income students. This is probably a good thing, but I’m wondering how much time cash-strapped low-income students will divert from their classwork and jobs to attend supplementary classes.  Will this be mandatory?

* More Pell grant money! Sadly, the amount of money does not match the enormous fee hikes that many colleges are imposing this year.

There is also an additional $4 billion dollars to go to community colleges and historically black institutions. As a former community college attendee, I wholeheartedly support this part of the bill.  I was a transfer student and some of my best students at Berkeley are transfer students; I hope that this money will help our valuable, cash-strapped community colleges.  Still, the financial impact on my student loans–nada.

So, Derek Thompson from The Atlantic is accurate in his assessment of what the student lending law means for borrowing students: not a whole lot.

Photos by Colleen Morgan

It’s late and the bus is still filled to the gills with chattering Berkeley students, fogging up the windows and ignoring the exhortations of the bus driver, “STEP BACK! EVERYONE STEP BACK!” Students are leaving campus after late nights studying and working in labs, some headed to Safeway to stock up on supplies.  The student traffic tapers off south of Alcatraz, with older commuters staying on, heading to downtown Oakland and beyond.  The bus quietly undergoes an almost complete demographic change, one that has not gone unnoticed by the AC Transit authorities.

You may have missed the announcement last month from AC Transit: major changes were coming for some of the local bus lines, the most shocking of which is breaking the 51 in half at the Rockridge BART into 51A and 51B, lines that would service the north and the south segments of the 51′s route.  This would require paying for a transfer for non-UC Students, and for students with a Class Pass (a mandatory charge of $69.50 to your student fees, I hope you make good use of it!) presumably AC Transit would be able to charge UC for two rides instead of one. I also do not particularly look forward to getting off at Rockridge and waiting for another bus, especially late at night after a long day of grading.

It’s not a major disruption and will not change the experience of most students who live inside the Berkeley bubble, yet it seems a bit cynical on the part of AC Transit to break the bus line in half at the Berkeley/Oakland border. Students tend to stay in a tight circle around campus, and while this may benefit their university education, it seems a bit sad to live in the Bay Area for several years without venturing into Oakland and San Francisco.  In this respect, breaking up the 51 is just another division between Berkeley and Oakland, punishing those who would venture outside of the bubble.

Located about 3.5 miles northwest of the Berkeley Campus (take the Buchanan exit off 80 and head west), The Albany Bulb was an active construction landfill until 1987 and is now part of the Eastshore State Park.  It’s not marked on Google Maps, but you’ll recognize it if you follow the coastline up from Gilman until you see, well, a bulb extending into the bay.  Take a nice, meandering walk (or ride) from the parking lot and you’ll be treated to breathtaking views of San Francisco and the bay as well as giant sculptures by local artists and graffiti-covered construction debris.  Head leftish on the path to Mad Mark’s castle, then wander north along the shore to find large murals and amusing uses of the large chunks of concrete scattered throughout the island.  On the north shore you’ll encounter huge sculptures by artists Osha Neumann and Jason De Antonis–I like to get to this part of the bulb by the late afternoon, so I can watch the sunset light up the city and the sculptures.

On any given day you will run into dog walkers, mountain bicyclists, anarchists, graffiti artists, photographers, and people who might rather not be disturbed.  The east side of the bulb is where there are more permanent encampments and the dogs who guard this area are not particularly friendly.  Stick to the well-trod paths and you’ll have a blast.  I bet you didn’t think that the apocalypse could be this fun!

I have to admit that I didn’t feel much of a connection to the Bay Area until relatively recently.  I missed my home, where I was familiar with the local history, geology, and native plants and animals.  Did you know that nearly half of trees species you see around Berkeley and San Francisco are originally from Australia and New Zealand?  I didn’t, until I had a look inside Mike Sullivan’s The Trees of San Francisco, available for check out from the Bioscience and Natural Resources Library.  The blue gum eucalyptus grove, native to Australia, contains the tallest trees on campus, indeed the tallest stand of hardwood trees in North America.

If you don’t have a lot of interest in the not-so-local plants, take a look at Oakland Geology, a blog dedicated to local geology.  Andrew Alden highlights the rocks around town.  According to Alden, “every neighborhood in Oakland with a “mont” in its name has bedrock exposed.”  You’ll know you’ve got it when you can tell the difference between serpentine and blueshist.

An old Sanborn fire insurance map showing the lay of the land along Shattuck Avenue in 1894

Finally, how old is the building you live in?  Was your aging south-side Victorian always chopped up into 12 tiny apartments with hallways for bedrooms?  You can do a little detective work by looking up the old Sanborn fire insurance maps, available digitally through the UC Berkeley library.  It helps to click on the index first to locate the pages containing the street nearest to you.  I found out that my old apartment was built right next to Strawberry Creek before the city moved the stream underground.  Also, most street margins on the major thoroughfares around town have trolley tracks underneath them—the Key Route system served most of the East Bay until it was dismantled as part of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy.  If you happen to live in Oakland, Michael Migurski has done a lot of the heavy cartographic lifting for you at Old Oakland, where you can select and overlay different historical layers.

Welcome to your new home!