UC Berkeley announces plans to collaborate with the city to house People's Park residents in light of campus plans to build student housing there. How are people reacting? In light of all the controversy surrounding emissions, how will the fight impact campus funding? Governor Newsom signs an executive order directing state agencies and departments to ensure that they are complying with economic sanctions imposed on Russia.
How will this affect local businesses and what do professors have to say about it? And finally, if you're feeling a little bit stressed out, maybe this story can help. How do campus mental health clubs operate on campus and what resources are available for you? Welcome to the Daily Cal News Podcast.
I'm your host, Chris Ying, the city news editor. Stay tuned. We have the five stories you need to wrap up your week. Campus administration announced updates on the plan for student housing at People's Park.
I'm joined by Malika Sashandri, our managing editor. Malika, thanks for joining us. Absolutely. So what are campus's construction plans as of right now?
Last September, the UC Board of Regents formally approved a project to convert People's Park into student housing. Campus said the structure would provide 1,100 beds for undergrads and 100 units of permanent supportive housing from housed in the orange individuals. Chancellor Carol Chris vowed that campus would not start building until those currently living in People's Park get housing as a new place to be during the day. That being said, construction is slated to begin the summer.
So what has campus said that they'll do? What are their plans to rehouse people who are going to be displaced by the construction? So this past Wednesday, campus administration, the city of Berkeley, and local nonprofits announced a collaborative effort to house People's Park residents at the roadway in for 18 months and also support the transition into more permanent housing. The city got $4.7 million in the state government, which will use to fund 42 rooms at the end for the first 12 months, as well as basic heat services and assistance provided by the Boat Services, which is a local nonprofit organization.
Campus has also agreed to chip in $2.2 million to fund the final six months. Each resident will be given a remodeled private room with a kitchenette and bathroom as well as access to linen, toiletries, and laundry facilities. So what are people's reactions to this? They vary.
People's Park historic district advocacy group member Harvey Smith doesn't believe the plan is sufficiently filed and believes the city can't pursue a more quote-unquote moving one group here, one group there kind of approach to addressing houselessness. Other people have been more positive, though. For instance, Village of Love, a local nonprofit that aims to supply basic heat services to the houseless, so they're very excited to partner with the city. All right.
Well, thanks for covering this story, Malika. We'll check back in. The California Supreme Court's March 3rd ruling ordered campus to freeze enrollment at the 2020-2021 levels, which will profound thousands of students from enrolling at UC Berkeley in the fall. Concerns about campus funding are being raised, following this decision, and I'm joined here by our lead academic administration's reporter, Lydia Statholm, who has been covering this issue.
So, Lydia, can you give us a little bit of background on this issue? It says in-person enrollment will be frozen at 2020-2021 levels. What does this mean, and what is the reasoning for the verdict? Yeah, so this means that Berkeley will offer about 5,000 ones acceptances in this application cycle, which will reduce enrollment to 2020-2021 levels.
And the reasoning for the verdict comes out of the State Berkeley's Neighborhoods, which is a local community group that have raised concerns about the role of the university in displacing local residents and not being able to have adequate housing for both its students, and as well as not being able to address the housing crisis in the city. So that's the main reason why the verdict passed and why it's in the situation of the elementary now. I see. And given that a lot of campus funding comes from these students' tuition, do you have a current estimate for how much funding campus will lose as a result of this decision?
Yeah, so this has caused a lot of campus leadership to wonder about how current students will be impacted, and the main reason why they will be impacted is because of losing funding, and the main number that campus provided in their initial press release was about $57 million in lost tuition, but campus books' person, Dan Modeloff, says that because a decision like this is so unprecedented, he said, quote, nothing like this has ever happened before at Berkeley or across the UC, and as far as we know, at any other university in our country. So because it's so unprecedented, he says that there are people working on trying to pinpoint the exact number, so it's likely to surpass $57 million, but that's the number we have right now. Wow. And what student services might be impacted as a result?
Yeah, so again, it's so unprecedented. It's still unclear exactly which student services will be impacted, but ASUC academic affairs president, James Whitechart, says that essentially everything is at risk. So this can include libraries, recruitment and retention centers, academic advising, and university health services, and he notes that there have been budget shortages in the past, specifically into the COVID, which have an impact on all students and all students of field first, which can be seen in, for example, children's library hours. So the ASUC budget committee is currently making suggestions to campus about which services should be prioritized and which should not in light of the budget deficit.
Included in the ones that should be prioritized is recruitment and retention centers, specifically because of diversity concerns that have come out of the law to freeze verdict, and services that shouldn't be prioritized according to the ASUC budget committee are things that have been TPD. I see, and I know you mentioned some of these suggestions. Do you have an idea of what campus' next steps are and any other services that might be prioritized when deciding to budget cuts? Yeah, so a lot of that said that campus is currently working on protecting the academic core and the student experience, but because it's so unprecedented, campus really doesn't have a clear idea of which exact services will be prioritized, and they also don't have a step plan yet for moving forward and continuing the financial impact.
But they said that campus will continue to keep their campus community updated as we move forward. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Lydia. Yeah, thank you.
Bye-bye. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday directing state agencies and businesses to comply with economic sanctions on Russia. I'm joined by reporter Olivia Brannan, who covered the sanctions and can tell us more. Thank you so much for having me.
So, Olivia, why did Newsom sign this order? So, Governor Newsom signed this executive order as a show of support to the people and government of Ukraine. He recently met with Consul General of Ukraine in San Francisco to basically express California's solidarity with the country as it's currently being attacked by Russia. And so this order is basically meant to support Ukraine during its time of conflict.
Amazing. And can you elaborate a little more on what these sanctions are and what they entail? Yeah, so the sanctions are basically calling agencies and businesses in California to review their current contracts and halt their dealings with Russia. This can take a lot of forms, but some examples are stopping the exchange of technology, commodities and services, financial transactions, and the purchasing of Russian debt.
So state agencies and departments are required to report the steps that they're taking to comply with these sanctions, as well as their expected support for Ukraine. Newsom is also urging but not requiring businesses to do the same. Got it. That sounds pretty complicated, but do you know a little bit about how this will affect local businesses in Berkeley more specifically?
And are they supportive of these sanctions? Yeah, while some local retailers might have Russian buyers, this probably won't have that big of an effect on businesses in Berkeley. That being said, there's a general widespread support for these sanctions across California. Businesses seem to be on board with supporting Ukraine because the state also has one of the largest Ukrainian communities in the country, so that might play a role in California's support as well.
Got it. Thank you so much, Olivia. Yeah, no problem. It is currently midterm season at UC Berkeley, which means stress is at an all-time high for Cal students.
How are students coping during these turbulent times? I'm joined by academics and administration reporter Cindy Liu. Cindy, can you talk a little bit about how mental health is looking like on campus right now? Yeah, so I think at the university, like Berkeley, students are always already stressed because they're going to spend.
And like you said, it's midterm season right now, which really elevates the level of stress that students are feeling. And in addition, there's also current events happening, such as the war in Ukraine, of course, as well as the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which all just kind of piles on top of each other. And I think this can be a particularly difficult time for students who don't have the support or community they need. Okay, when we're talking about mental health, it can really be something with a lot of stigma surrounding it, which can prevent people from getting the support that they need.
How can we help address this? We talked a little bit about how mental health resources often go and are utilized because people can be worried about using resources that other people may need more. But the reality is that the state of mental health is a spectrum, and these resources are here for all of us, no matter where we might fall on that spectrum. So I think that's an interesting thing to think about.
I see. And what kind of resources are we talking about? Yeah, so Berkeley has a ton of resources to support students' mental health, even though a lot of students may not necessarily know about these. One that I think is pretty popular is just clubs supporting mental health, where to clearly pause for mental health, which is just a club where you have dogs on sprawl, and you can go and pet them, release stress, feel a little bit less anxious, and you have your long day.
And I think that's a really easy, accessible way to get a mental health support. Which is counseling and psychological services, where they offer group counseling, walk-in consultations, and more. And lastly, I didn't know about this, but I think it's super helpful, is just that people living in Berkeley, so Berkeley students included, get free resources like Headspace, which is a popular meditation app, which usually costs some money, as well as MyStrengths, which is another app that offers mental health interventions. So I'd definitely recommend checking out one or more of these resources, because they're all mostly free or super accessible.
Amazing coverage, Cindy. Thank you so much. Thanks, Kelly. And that's it for the week of March 7th to March 11th.
Thanks for joining us at the Daily Cal News Podcast. We'll be here every week on Spotify, Apple Music, and SoundCloud. If you would like to find out more about these stories, either pick up a copy of the paper on campus, or visit us online at dailycal.org. Also, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, at Daily Cal, and we even have a TikTok at The Daily Cal.
Highlights from other departments. If you want to hear more about Cal men swimming and diving and their performance in the Pac-12 Championships, head on over to the sports section of the Daily Cal website. Thanks for joining us this week. Take care, and go Bears!
Bye-bye.