Today marks day two of Tele-BEARS phase two appointments and some UC Berkeley students are having trouble signing up for courses due to an as-of-yet unknown technical problem.

Associate Registrar Walter Wong said that for some unknown reason the system is picking up the wrong appointment time for some students, preventing them from signing up for courses.

The central course registration system has had glitches in the past that erased class waitlists and determined unfair advantages in the appointment times of students at the Boalt Hall School of Law.

In this case, Wong said in many of the instances students were able to sign up for classes after logging in and out a few times. However, that method was ineffective in some cases, and students are still having problems, he said.

According to Wong, the office is currently trouble-shooting to figure out the source of the problem.

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When UC Berkeley journalism graduate student James Buck flew into Egypt late last month, he was there to observe how the nation’s emerging blogosphere serves as an alternative to the mainstream press.

But when police detained the freelance photographer in a town outside Cairo, his research trip quickly became a real-life lesson in the powers of the Web.

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Next month’s commencement convocation at the Hearst Greek Theatre is expected to draw record audiences, according to ceremony officials.

1,400 graduating students are currently set to attend the May 13 event, while roughly 700 came to last spring’s ceremony, said Katherine Nguyen, the Californians’ vice president for May commencement. Each student is allotted 10 tickets for relatives and friends, yet the venue’s Web site indicates it can only seat about 6,000.

Nguyen did not know what has compelled so many students to attend this year, but said they and their guests will likely be able to attend if they reserved their tickets by April 1.

This year’s keynote speaker is Craigslist.org founder Craig Newmark, who said his undergraduate years at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio were enjoyable — if somewhat introverted.

“I got a good education, but I should have gotten out more and had a little bit of fun,” said Newmark, who majored in computer science. “I was very much in my ‘nerd years’ then — let’s say I was bad at interacting with people.”

Newmark, who has also given commencement speeches at USC and Stanford University in recent years, hinted that he may soon collaborate with a popular cable TV comedian.

“I’ll also be speaking the following week at Montclair State University in New Jersey, and that’s where Stephen Colbert lives, so there may be mischief in store,” he said. “I don’t know (what), but I’ll think of something.”

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When the U.S. News & World Report ranks the nation’s educational institutions–most recently, the top graduate programs–the lists often stir debate.

But first-year Haas School of Business student Buzz Buzko, who earned his undergraduate degree in Ukraine, said that a school’s reputation carries more weight than its exact ranking for people outside the U.S. This year, the U.S. News & World Report listed Haas as tied at No. 7 with Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business Administration.

“Both employers and employees in Ukraine are not aware of anything but Harvard (University) and Stanford (University)–they don’t know what Berkeley is,” he said. “In this respect, there is a problem for students who want to come back to Ukraine and search for a job. The power of Haas is enormous here in the U.S., but it’s basically zero in Ukraine because they don’t know who Haas is.”

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Lt. Col. Brad Jensen, who teaches UC Berkeley’s Air Force ROTC program, plans to soon retire after 26 years of military service. His job has taken him all over the country, including Louisiana, Utah, Guam, California, Virginia and North Dakota. Berkeley marks his last stop.

When he enlisted in 1982, the Gulf War was underway. “We sat alert, we had our airplanes, aircraft and missiles on alert and Russia was the big threat,” Jensen said. “We thought the world might end in a nuclear holocaust.”

He nodded to the dozens of Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force members doing training exercises in the middle of North Field. “We send cadets around the world for language training and cultural immersion to try and get them prepared to go work in the Balkans or the Middle East or Asia,” said Jensen, who speaks Dutch, Spanish and French. “They’re going to be stationed anywhere in the world.”

What has changed most about the military between then and now, he said, is a greater understanding of the enemy.

“In some ways, it’s a much harder threat to defend against than the Russians were during the Cold War,” Jensen said. “You know what their missiles were, you knew if we didn’t threaten them they wouldn’t hurt us. But we don’t know that with the terrorists–they want to destroy us and we don’t know where they are.”

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As John Garamendi spoke to a packed student audience at Wheeler Auditorium yesterday, the lieutenant governor’s old image of UC Berkeley–where he attended in the 1960s–sometimes seemed to be at odds with the new.

“Last night was pure Berkeley–fun stuff,” he said, referring to the Berkeley City Council meeting that drew protesters and media outlets from all over the nation. Then he asked how many in the audience had attended.

None of the attendees of Political Science 179 raised their hands.

Later, Garamendi encouraged his listeners to peacefully protest against potential student fee increases. The UC Board of Regents had discussed in January the possibility of raising student fees in response to proposed university budget cuts following California’s budget crisis.

“Do you know what marching is?” Garamendi asked. “Do you do that anymore here?”

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