At this week’s ASUC Senate meeting, senators heard a warning from Finance Officer Alan Ni regarding their financial situation. He said there is less than 9 percent of funds left in the senate’s contingency fund, which is allocated in the spring for the senate to distribute throughout the semester.

Last week, Ni reported that 63 percent of the contingency fund remained. The senate spent about $9,000 at its meeting last week, which was almost 40 percent of the fund, according to Ni. Last week’s meeting was the first full meeting at which the senate could conduct official business since Sept. 23 due to a delay in confirming Ni to the finance officer position.

Ni said he would be writing a bill in the next few days to replenish the contingency fund with money from the carryforward fund, which serves as the senate’s reserve. He added that he thinks the senate needs better guidelines for approving bills.

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UC Berkeley professor of energy and resources Daniel Kammen and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School research scholar Timothy Searchinger reveled an important, yet fixable, error in legal accounting rules for bioenergy in the Oct. 23 issue of Science.

The error could undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gases by encouragaing deforestation. Since burning of bioenergy and fossil energy releases high amounts of carbon dioxide, increased plant growth is needed to offset the emissions. Plants grown specifically for bioenergy will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Nations are currently developing a global climate treaty for the December summit in Copenhagen, and scientists said legal rules for bioenergy included in the treaty will impact climate change.

“As we approach the most important climate treaty negotiations in history, it is vital that technologies, such as biofuels, that are proposed as solutions to global warming, are properly evaluated,” said Kammen.

The private consultant hired by the ASUC and UC Berkeley administration to determine the feasibility of raising student fees to fund a renovation of Lower Sproul Plaza presented its report to students last Thursday.

Washington, D.C.-based Brailsford & Dunlavey—which was selected on Sept. 21 to complete the $50,000 assessment—conducted about 17 focus group discussions before completing its assessment, according to Graduate Assembly President Miguel Daal.

“They gave two stipulations with that recommendation: one that the campus should pay half (of the renovation costs), and that students should continually poll their constituency groups and make sure that there are a majority in support of the project,” he said.

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According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a confidential report commissioned by BART in light of the shooting of Oscar Grant III by a BART police officer was released to attorneys on both sides of the pending murder trial.

In February of this year, BART hired an independent firm, Meyers Nave, to investigate the shooting of Grant at the Fruitvale BART station by former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle.

The 84-page report on the officers’ conduct by the firm was strictly confidential. However, Judge Morris Jacobson ruled that the report must be handed over to both Deputy District Attorney David Stein and Mehserle’s attorney Michael Rains, under strict protective guidelines.

The attorneys must receive Jacobson’s permission before they can use any part of the report in court.

Rains is appealing the decision to release the report.

Two wrongful death lawsuits filed by the family of Oscar Grant III were scheduled to be heard in court in a year, Bay City News reported yesterday.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel set the date for Oct. 19, 2010.

The lawsuits were filed by Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, and girlfriend, Sophina Mesa, after Grant was shot by former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle on New Year’s Day.

Mehserle will face trial on Nov. 2, once Alameda County Judge Morris Jacobson decides on a change of venue for the case.

The lawsuit cannot go to court until the criminal trial is completed.

Judge Patel said that it has not been decided whether a third lawsuit, filed by Grant’s friends, will be included with the family’s lawsuits.

Charles Schwartz, UC Berkeley professor of physics emeritus, writes in an Oct. 16 post on his blog, universityprobe.org, that student fee revenues now form the largest portion of a university “general fund” used by the UC Regents to collateralize and service debt incurred through university capital projects.

“It is unclear, at this point, whether this situation might be a lapse in the exercise of fiduciary oversight by The Regents or merely a failure to provide the Accountability and Transparency that has been promised by the President,” he said.

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The head of the UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science stressed the benefits of the UC system in an open letter as state legislators look to resolve a $1.1 billion shortfall.

Acting Executive Dean Janet Broughton highlighted parts of the California economy that crucially depend on quality higher education. She also tied UC contributions to democracy and the betterment of society.

Broughton claimed that one fourth of all California biotech firms were founded by UC graduates or faculty. UC research websites echo that sentiment with their report that one in four US biotech companies are within 35 miles of a UC campus.

Besides business creation, the UCs offer even more important improvement to society, according to Broughton. UC Berkeley, for instance, offers students a multitude of language programs and a library system among the best in the world. The level of schooling available at California public universities has rarely been available to any but the very wealthy.

Broughton goes on to explain how democracy itself is dependent upon a UC style education. She asserts that “tough-minded” yet “open-minded” citizens are needed to properly engage in public service and that the UC system provides these kinds of individuals.

In addition to raising parking fees and adding meters (see the story in print), the Berkeley City Council also returned to the issue of affordable housing in its meeting Tuesday. The council voted to hold a workshop Oct. 27 to investigate methods of strengthening the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance.

By compiling a panel of experts and forming specific recommendations for the Planning Commission in the workshop, the council hopes to expedite the process of creating affordable housing throughout the city, council members said.

“I don’t think we can have the discussion in the council—I mean we could, but what good would it be?” Councilmember Susan Wengraf said. “I would rather wait a little bit and make sure that we have all the important information before us.”

Finally, the council also unanimously approved the completion of United Nations treaty reports by the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, which would detail Berkeley’s compliance with the UN’s Treaty recommendations.

Copies of the reports will be available to residents of Berkeley, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice.

“The city of Berkeley is providing an example on a small scale that we are going to respect these treaties as much as we can,” Councilmember Kriss Worthington said. “In our small little way, we are going forward with this small, profoundly positive, inspirational step that is very important and creative.”

—Sarah Springfield

Swiss consular officials visited three UC Berkeley alumni currently detained in Iran on Tuesday. Though the Swiss Consulate declined to give details to The Daily Californian, they did confirm the visit, which is the first time the three alumni have been able to meet with consulate officials since they were detained July 31. (Click here to read more…)