Pac-10 Is Poised to Announce $3-Billion Deals With ESPN and Fox →

After Months of Uncertainty, Men’s Gymnastics Will Continue at Cal

May 2, 2011, 10:30 pm

The University of California at Berkeley announced Monday that its men’s gymnastics program, which had been slated for elimination after this academic year, will continue now that the program has raised $2.5-million in pledges.

As I describe in a story published on Sunday, the Golden Bears’ plight had galvanized the men’s gymnastics community. Over the past several decades, the number of NCAA men’s gymnastics programs has dwindled to 17, and many coaches were concerned that losing Cal, a storied program with a 99-year history, might endanger the remaining teams. Alumni and other supporters rallied, and a vigorous fund-raising campaign netted the $2.5-million in pledges (including donations from three-quarters of all head men’s gymnastics coaches).

The program’s fate had been uncertain since September, when officials said they would need to eliminate baseball, men’s and women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, and rugby to trim Cal’s athletic subsidy by more than $7-million. By early April, all teams but men’s gymnastics had been reinstated after supporters of those programs raised a combined $18-million in pledges to cover operating costs for the next several years. (Women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, and rugby got a reprieve in February; baseball’s break came in early April.)

Cal officials said Monday that the team’s pledges, though shy of the $4-million officials originally asked for, would be enough to allow the team to continue in a pared-down fashion: Scholarships will be limited to returning athletes until more money is raised, and the program will have to find ways to reduce its operating expenses.

For Cal’s youthful interim coach, Tim McNeill, who guided the team to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA championships last month, the news came not a moment too soon: The final recruiting cycle for new additions to next year’s squad begins later this week.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

E-mail

knjpg00

I would tend to think the same thing I do in my classes – if one or two or even 50% of the students goof up an assignment, It’s probably their fault. If 99% of them screw it up, it’s almost certainly the fault of the instructions.

That said, anyone who’s worked both inside and outside academe for as much as a summer job, or is advising undergraduates, should know the vast difference between a c.v. and a resume. The biggest, as mentioned, is that a resume is one page and is a summary of your positions and a bullet list of accomplishments in each. A vitae is much more detailed and contains every publication, every job, sometimes even every committee you’ve served on. A c.v. often runs into the high 1′s of pages for entry-level folks, into the 10s of pages for senior folks.
elainevincent

I work in enrollment services -I don’t have a PhD and I don’t have a CV – because I’ve only published twice. My resume is a chronological list of relevant work experience, the responsibilities of that job and (to my mind the most important part of a resume) a quantitative description of what was accomplished on that job. For example ‘Increased applications by 20% in a two year period with a 4% increase in yield.” An academic asked to write a resume is being asked, I think, to “sell” himself a bit. How did your committee participation improve the function of the committee? How many of the students you advised successfully did what they wanted to do (teach, research, whatever)? description of your grant writing success and the outcome of the grant.
iris411

Thanks. When I enter the job market, I’ll make sure to ask my potential employers what they expect from a resume or a CV. So far, it looks like everyone has their own definition or standard. But from your description, Resume is a CV combined with statement of purpose.
mbelvadi

Email versus paper mail causes one point of confusion that I don’t think is adequately settled enough to consider people “stupid” for getting wrong – if asked for a cover letter, does the body of the email itself count as the cover letter, or does the hirer expect an attached PDF cover letter? It seems to me that in the translation to email, the email body itself (to which the resume etc. is attached) is acting in the role of “cover letter”, but I know of no consensus on this point. If you expect a separate PDF cover letter, then what properly SHOULD be in the body of the email?
11182967

I have always used the terms resume, vita, CV interchangably, and in the 50 years since I went away to college have never heard or read that there was a critical distinction–not even in the textbooks I used to teach business or technical writing. With all due respect for the importance of following directions, in this matter Chambers is being Ms. Grundy: uber-nit-picking, not uber-supportive. I’ll bet she’s the sort of person who enjoys writing those “trick questions” on multiple-choice exams.
copesan

A resume is often a one-page summary; a CV is academic, contains things like publications, presentations, etc., and is more discursive. To 11182967 and others with similar comments, stop being trolls.
mlhodge

Hello,

I am very interested in the position of Instruction Librarian for State University’s DonorName Library. I have attached my cover letter, curriculum vitae, and list of references for the perusal of the hiring committee.

Please feel free to contact me here at myname@gmail.com or at (123) 456-7890 if you have any questions or require additional information. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Applicant
texasmusic

The CVs I have helped some faculty members create include not only work experience and skills, but also such information as specific courses taught, guest lectures, bibliography of publications. They usually run to several pages. A résumé, on the other hand, is no more than one or two pages outlining relevant experience, skills, and training. It’s very concise.

When we were hiring a department secretary a while ago, one of the applicants was a new graduate who was so excited to be applying for real jobs that she submitted a CV with all of her teaching experience and conference presentations, none of which were relevant to the job for which she was applying. The hiring committee members were reluctant to look at her application because they were concerned she was looking for more academic work and would not be happy filing paperwork, setting up meetings, and scheduling classroom use. So sometimes, it’s not just that it’s important to follow instructions – sometimes it’s considered an indicator of motive and it can hurt you.
texasmusic

While not exactly the same as not being able to follow directions, I’d like to add that when a posting requests a cover letter and/or résumé, even if the application website shows these as optional, they are NOT optional. They only time you shouldn’t submit these things is if there is no way to do so.
texasmusic

You may believe this, but it’s not going to win you points if you need the job. Even if you’re right, your determination to do things your way will only show you’re not a team player. People who aren’t team players don’t get hired. And sometimes, you just have a nit-picky person doing the hiring. If that’s a problem, then count yourself lucky for not working there. You’d hate it anyway.
walkerst

And if all you can do is complain that the person doing the hiring is too picky, that says more about you than anything else. I wouldn’t want to hire someone who cannot figure out that they should follow the instructions, even if they think they are ridiculous – sometimes there are specific reasons for ridiculous instructions, such as legal requirements, contractual issues, etc. I hire a fair number of people, and have a reputation for being a good boss – but my job postings are often annoyingly nit-picky, not because I choose to have them that way, but because of some of the requirements I am required to follow. I have had up to 100 applicants for every posting I have had in the last 3 years, and people who couldn’t follow instructions didn’t make the cut. Maybe we’ve missed a few who would have been good in the positions, but since we managed to fill each vacancy with someone terrific, I’m not crying about losing out on others who might have been good, but ‘knew better’ than to follow the nitpicky instructions.
ikd82

It seems like your problem could be solved with earbuds. We had that as a standing rule in our shared office.
jimdilly

The solution is walls.
afbailey

I feel the same way. Your cubicle sounds luxurious compared to mine. My shared office has four cubicles (shared among many more than just four adjuncts; I don’t have an exact number), all of which are piled high with other people’s books and papers, the computer keyboards are full of crumbs, and if we want to print something, we have to supply our own printer paper. Oftentimes there are other adjuncts in the office who use the space as a lounge and simply sit in there and talk, but I need to concentrate if I’m in there. I liken my situation as an adjunct to being a homeless person. The office is like a homeless shelter; I only go in there if I have to. I typically find an empty classroom and do my prep work in there before my classes (and, like a homeless person, I sometimes get kicked out of the empty classrooms I find due to other classes starting). I always carry all of my books and papers in and out with me, which makes for a heavy bag (I live in NYC and don’t have a car), but I really have no other options. I’d love to have even my own cubicle. I definitely feel like I could be a more effective instructor if I had a permanent office on campus.
dpmccain

As an adjunct with a shared space as well, I can say with confidence, I don’t even know in which row my cubicle is located. I grade papers, view videos at home, and hold virtual office hours, so my students know they may email me when the mood strikes them, and I will respond the same day…and if I happen to be at my computer (which is frequently) within a few moments.

I don’t like cubicles, I don’t even like the idea of cubicles. Our cubicles do not have phones (there is a bank of phones and computers just a throw away from all of the cubicles)…but I carry my lesson plans, books, etc in two plastic totes (I teach two sections of one class, and one of another…so have two totes). I need simply transfer my stapler and my pencil box (which also holds my clicker and my thumb drive) depending on what class I am teaching.

You might consider working at home for awhile and see if you prefer it; I know I do. I can sit in my socks and pajamas, and my professionalism is not compromised one wit. Very few of my students need face to face conferences, as I explain I document everything…which keeps the face to face whining to a minimum, and they only email me with legitimate concerns.

Who invented cubicles? Someone who liked confined spaces?
wilkenslibrary

Teachers’ working conditions=students’ learning conditions.

When our mission statements claim that our students’ education is our highest priority, it rings hollow unless teachers have working conditions that promote and make possible student learning.

Betsy Smith
Adjunct Professor of ESL
Cape Cod Community College
deliajones

I wonder why The Chronicle keeps publishing these redundant whining posts. If it’s out of the mistaken idea that venting makes people feel better, I would challenge that assumption. Yes, a lack of decent office space is a hindrance to professionalism. Is here anything NEW to say about this?
anotherone

I wish I had an office. I’ve gone three semesters now with not so much as a place to hang my coat. The faculty lunchroom now serves as an “office,” but I cannot and will not meet my students there. Someone had a computer and printer placed in this room, but so many of us use it, it can get hairy if we all need it at once. The place is not private either; the cleaning staff often use this room to talk on the phone during their breaks.
copesan

Because without saying it repeatedly things have no chance of changing.
adjunctcarol

If adjuncts are provided with a working “space” that violates FERPA the school, not the adjunct is at fault. This could be a legal reason for schools to analyze office space and make improvements.
rrussell

You get a drawer?!
adjunctcarol

I have 4 drawers. And 4 shelves. Whoopee, we worked hard to get enough space.
helpful

“In our office are two, three-drawer filing cabinets.” Perhaps getting a wall would help with proper use of commas. I can’t believe a teacher (and one of English at that) would make the same basic error that many of my students make. Have the rules about commas been changed while I wasn’t looking?
larryc

Ah, another in Sweeney’s continuing series of articles designed to make sure that no one ever hires him for a full time job.

Who want to tell him about headphones?
oldadjunct

Your whining about the obvious is tedious, self defeating, and boring. You don’t like your life, change it. Why, for example, have you never taken the responsibility/agency to introduce yourself to your neighbor? Are you as incapable of standing up, walking up to a person and saying, “Hello, my name is …,” as you are of determining an over heard language? Not only do I have no sympathy for your self description, I think you do not serve the important argument well.

There is a very apparent wall in your life but it is between your perceptions of “should be my life” and the current realities of “is my life.” I suggest you build a new wall between “was my life” and “is my life” and begin to enjoy your new domain.

There is much wrong with the “adjunctification” of higher education. Speaking for myself, I find you an astonishing bad spokesperson, much as you want to be a poster child. Truth be told, you have half of my last phrase down pat, and it is not “poster”.
retrenchment

Oh dear. Isaac has been dissed by an online pseudonym.
raza_khan

Hi Isaac

I sympathize with your working conditions. Foremost, I must stress that I do hope that they get better.

Said that, we have to look at reality as well. We have to look at the budget cuts and resisting raising tuition. Moreover, you have to keep in mind that adjuncts are not required to stay for the entire day. I see you point that you would love to stay and finish grading. As a full-time faculty for the last 13 years, so would I. However, even though I have a private office, there are still distractions (and I am not talking about impromptu hallway meetings :) ) and almost every week, I do bring papers home to grade.

The primary role of faculty office and office hours (or the shift as you pointed out) is for us to be available for our students. As much as we love to hope, it is now common that writing exam and grading exams, report and papers are getting done at home on weeknights, weekends and holidays….. That is the reality of a faculty member at least at a community college. At 4-year institution, the game changes to grant writing and research….

best,

Raza
______________________________
Raza Khan, Ph.D
dr.raza.khan@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/IsaacSweeney IsaacSweeney

Perhaps helpful doesn’t understand a few things. First, that there may not have been a comma in my original document, and that it could have been added by editors (and this is the case). Second, that grammar rules change depending on the publications style guide — The Chronicle uses NYT’s Manual of Style, I believe. Third, pointing this out in comments among all the other things helpful could have pointed out makes helpful sound like a tool.
helpful

You are an English professor and should carefully proofread your text before publication. My apologies if the error came after you had proofread the text.

Please show me where the new way of writing permits the way you used the comma in the sentence I quoted. It defies reason that a comma would be used in this case as it interrupts th he flow of the sentence.
http://twitter.com/IsaacSweeney IsaacSweeney

I don’t know. I didn’t put it there. But it is possible that the editors/proofreaders/whoever felt having “two” and “three” next to each other could confuse some readers, despite the hyphen. People read differently. Grammar rules aren’t all hard and fast. Grammar — tools, not rules.
http://twitter.com/IsaacSweeney IsaacSweeney

You’re assertion that academic administrators and/or hiring committees won’t like me as a full-time employee just goes to show how much they don’t care about whom they have teaching in adjunct positions.

I can’t afford headphones; I’m an adjunct.
adjunctcarol

I couldn’t care less about commas. I care about working conditions that impede the instructor’s ability to perform their assigned tasks and the impact on the students’ education.
adjunctcarol

Many are holding online office hours now!
hodgefam

I find it fascinating that the importance of a college education for fostering individual and collective prosperity is acknowledged by people of widely diverse cultures. I also cannot help but conclude that not everyone–no matter where they come from–is college material. So what about vocational/technical training as an avenue to a better life? Can a well-skilled Chinese electrician or welder build a good life for their family? Every time I get the bill for a car or home repair, I think to myself that encouraging young folks to trek on down to their friendly neighborhood community college to pursue an associate in applied science degree is not such a bad idea. But I digress…
electronicmuse

Yeah, well if “getting advice from a phone is more benign than . . . getting advice from [your] mother,” then you really do need the therapist, forget the phone . . .

Uh, “seriously depressing” article . . . please, give me a ring to clear this up.
rdiane1

electronicmuse, I’m guessing you have never experienced the long-term throes of depression and, while I certainly don’t wish that on you, you might consider that others who have are not likely to be amused by your naive attempt at humor.

While I find the initial results of this study encouraging, like Mohr, I am concerned that those recruited for the study may have been more motivated than most chronically depressed persons. I’m curious to see the results of further studies.
11122741

people forgot that one of the most successful computer experiments of all times was ELIZA at MIT in the 1960′s which did “online therapy’ using the simplest of algorithms. It was meant as just a simple demonstration but it was so used that they had to take it off the system. Evidence of success were self-reported but high but the program wasn’t up long enough to get past the novelty effect or get harder evidence on success. Trekies will know who ELIZA transgendered into but the evidence to support the concept of the computer as the useful sidekick (the theme of much literature for over 10,000 years) has been there for 50 years as well as Mesthane’s central concept that all technology
(and the software is the real technology) is an extension of some human capability or capacity which in this case is the ability to helpful minister to others; an example of an extension to the caring and affective domain rather than the cogntive and number crunching domains. Go Josh, your are inventing ASI (artificial social intelligence) which is far, far more needed than AI.
andrew0261

Thanks “rdiane1″ for the correction! I can see how it “may sound simple or hokey,” but as you say, if you’ve gone thru depression you know how simple things… heck, like exercise, are an incredible help!
libby_fundwell

Excellent article. How can someone sign up? I have a relative, a young man with dystymia who sees a psychiatrist who can practice at Northwestern.
11272784

The Nematodes…wasn’t that a psychedelic band around 1969?
http://twitter.com/ValentinoBenito Valentino Martinez

When you get past 60 years of age, as I have, the drama of the coming end seems to find its way to the heart of the matter–that that remote thought that the end of me is really quite near.

Not only is it a sobering thought it is a motivating thought that what always mattered to me matters even more now.
Socratease2

That idea of “death deacceleration” may have been an unchallenged mathematical/statistical finding for a while but seems that a 5 year old could have told you that sounds wrong. It takes really smart people to act that confused.
darccity

Solutions:
1. Cryogenic freezing (worked for Woody Allen)
2a. Suspended animation during space flight, like they do in all the movies (caution: don’t wait we must to abandon Earth following global climate change or nuclear war — spaceships will be full).
2b. Space travel near speed of light so we age much less rapidly (like Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes). Or use an inflinite probability machine to visit the restaurant at the end of the universe
3. Do a Logan’s Run to the surface if your hand ever starts glowing (avoid ray gun fire though)
4. Transfer your consciousness to a robot or computer to become immortal (Star Trek episodes)
5. Reincarnate, coming back in a more favorable time and existence if karma is favorable
6. Have slaves build a pyramid with a secret chamber
7a. Switch to a religion with the true deity and follow its dictate so you can spend eternity in heaven
7b. Switch to a religion whose messiah is due during your lifetime (consult actuarial tables, scriptures, and prophets or alternatively use introspection to realize that a messiah is sure to come during your lifetime). Then follow step in 7a above and follow the shining path to the rapture
8. Build a time machine and travel far enough into the future to when they have cures for aging
9. Late in life, move to Sweden, learn language, master the game of chess, and get cast in a movie (not involving dragon tattoos). Then play Death for your life. Tip: be wary of the Nabbakov Gambit and don’t let the Grim Reaper distract you with discussion of existential philosophy.
10. Determine if you are already immortal. Wrong way to test: stab yourself in heart and see if you die. Right way to test: notice that you’ve never died before, so you could be immortal. Continue testing each year. Empirically, you notice that test on yourself never observes a dead response. Not so for your scientific control group: other people your age. Notice the control group dying off and at an increasing rate but you never do (don’t ever believe doctors who say you are dying — they don’t realize you are immortal). Of course the Social Security data is flawed because we know from Twilight Zone (also retold in Star Trek and Highlander) that immortals simply change the IDs and relocate whenever their current spouses age too much.
Guest

I’m just now reading The Last Mortal Generation: How Science Will Alter Our Lives in the 21st Century, first published in 1999 by the Australian polymath Damien Broderick. His account hooked me with the notion that senescence may not be inevitable, but “a sentence botched by a DNA spelling mistake.”

There’s a lot to be said for the notion that, as a species, we’ve only begun to mature psychologically and intellectually about the same time the grim reaper comes knocking on our door.
EllenHunt

It’s true, what you said. But having some background in the area, I think that Damien is blowing smoke. Or DNA program unfolding is a one-way program that was never intended to do anything but run out. Getting immortality, or even very long life (500 – 1000 years) out of it will be very difficult.

We know how to make cells immortal, that’s easy. It’s called cancer. Keeping the whole organism alive for far too long is a very different trick requiring a lot of cell death.
EllenHunt

Ahem. Mathematical purist chirping in here. The statement “The older you get, the more likely you are to die.” is not correct. Your odds of dying are always 100%, no matter what age you are.

The older you get, the more likely you are to die in the coming year (or some other defined time span) is correctly stated. Yes, I know we mostly all understand the difference, but these things bug me. A “Monk” character trait, like my being bothered by those postmile markers on the road which are never at even multiples.
darccity

That’s why it is called a mortality RATE! Or to mix rates with eventual outcome, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” You are taxed each time interval or for each purchase or activity (though loopholes can exempt you). But since a huge proportion of people who’ve ever lived are currently alive, eventual death of all today (and as yet unborn) requires a world where “androids dream of robotic sheep” to posit (rewatch Blade Runner for the context).
lharasim

This app or others working on such problems deserve support and serious study. Yes, exercise and socializing are knee-jerk suggestions, and they do hold value. But for those who are depressed, knowing the “answer” does not make it happen. Receiving a well-timed reminder may well trigger action. I too do not appreciate smart aleck ripostes like that of electronicmuse…people behaving badly is really ‘seriously depressing’.
Guest

EH: >a one-way program that was never intended to do anything but run out.>>

Intended by whom?

I don’t speak for him, but Broderick can blow smoke with the best of them, for sure. The first sentence of his now 13-year-old text is a quote (epigraph) by Roger Gosden: “No one but a crank would say that a cure for aging is just around the corner.” And elsewhere: “scepticism is understandably more prevalent than optimism.” He goes on, discussing S. Jay Olshansky at U of Chicago, to say: “Olshansky argues that so many of us now live far beyond our reproductive years because the rugged engineering built by evolution into the species is bolstered, but only up to a point, by technology’s protective environments. We are like race cars: not _designed_ to fail, just not fashioned for extended operation.”

My own academic background is in rhetoric (a discipline with no content), but I have an insatiable appetite for popularizations of contemporary science. Why do non-cancerous entities live such various “normal” life spans: from a summer’s day to three years, to 20, to 120, to those ancient turtles Galapagosing around their island?

We often hear the statement that human DNA is, like, 98% the same as that of chimps, but I want to know how similar we are to Mayflies and turtles. If I could rewind my own bio-program, I would start my professional life over as a specialist in common knowledge.
leonid_gavrilov

Greetings,

You can meet the authors of this study, listen their lecture, ask your own questions and participate in discussions this Tuesday, March 13, in Chicago.

http://longevity-science.blogspot.com/2012/03/longevity-meeting-in-chicago-march-13.html

Shorter weblink:

http://tinyurl.com/Longevity-Lecture

What: Lecture by Gavrilov & Gavrilova “Mortality at Advanced Ages” (session A4) with subsequent Discussion

When: Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 1:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Where: Chicago, Illinois (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, 300 East Randolph Street), room Train 3

Logistic details:

http://www.chicagoactuarialassociation.org/future_events.html

and

http://www.chicagoactuarialassociation.org/2012_03_v3.pdf

For those who are interested, the meeting will be followed by informal discussion, which will become increasingly informal by 5:15 p.m. (cocktail reception) and even more so later by 5:45 p.m. (dinner).

Hope to see you at this meeting!

If you can not come to Chicago at this time, and would like to have a similar event at your organization, feel free to contact the authors at:

gavrilov@longevity-science.org