UCSC Tree-Sitters Hold Their Perches

School within environmental, seismic rights in plan for sports facility; time yet for appeal

(NEWSER) - After a year and a half of wrangling, a California judge gave UC Berkeley the green light yesterday to cut down dozens of trees in order to build an athletic training center next to its football stadium. Three protesters are still living in one tree at the site and are refusing to leave, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. More»

UC Berkeley dismantles treehouses; protesters cheered construction can't proceed

(NEWSER) - UC Berkeley can't yet proceed with a $140 million athletic center, a judge ruled yesterday, even as the university continued to dismantle structures belonging to protesters trying to save a grove of trees that would be cut down during construction, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Earthquake safety is the major issue; though the project is nearly compliant, environmental groups cheered the ruling. More»

Occupy Colleges starts new wave of protest movement

(NEWSER) - With city police cracking down on Occupiers nationwide, many protesters are looking for a new place to set up camp: university lawns. Occupiers have pitches their tents at only a few schools so far, but several did so at Berkeley this week after some 3,000 people demonstrated against tuition prices. At Duke University, a physics major is hosting Occupy teach-ins in a four-tent bivouac, and Harvard has a highly exclusive 30-tent setup—open only to those with student ID. More»

(NEWSER) - Penn State has knocked the University of Florida from its No. 1 spot … atop the Princeton Review’s “Best Party School” list. Each year, the Review ranks schools in a huge number of categories based on surveys of their students. A Penn State spokeswoman called it a “popularity contest,” among students. “The results are not connected to reality,” she tells the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. But here are some winners anyway: More»

Execs take teaching jobs amid crisis

(NEWSER) - With the financial tornado buffeting Wall Street, some of its leading figures are ditching their careers for work in academia, Time reports. Merrill Lynch’s former president is teaching at Yale; Citigroup’s former merger boss headed to Berkeley; a onetime Goldman Sachs exec is now at Harvard. “It’s hard work for little pay,” notes a Goldman veteran now at New York University. More»