A Magazine for the Graduate Community TheGraduate Volume XIX • Number 2 • 2007 U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A , B E R K E L E Y Do Babies Matter? What graduate students have to say about parenthood LETTER FROM THE DEAN The Magic of Berkeley is Something We Make Together THIS IS MY LAST MESSAGE TO who are helping unlock the secrets of THE GRADUATE COMMUNITY. human life through our DNA, and who are I have had the privilege of helping develop new low-cost medicines, serving as Graduate Dean for one of such as the artemisinin that will soon the greatest universities in the world combat malaria. Others are working to for seven years, since August 2000. preserve the languages of California’s own These have been, for me, the most numerous Native American tribes, and more fulfilling years of my career. Each are assisting our latest Nobel Prize winner, Peg Skorpinski photo May when I confer degrees on some George Smoot, in measuring the age of the of the most promising students in the world, I feel the Big Bang that created the universe. pride and the responsibility of maintaining this incredible The magic reaches out, too, through institution of higher learning. I have always believed that the teaching they go on to do in their Berkeley is magical. It is a unique world that offers the careers, some at Berkeley, many in other best of learning and the best of living. When I travel, I am parts of California (including other UC often approached by grad alums around the world who campuses), and elsewhere in this country want to recount their days at Berkeley. They tell me their and around the world. And their research graduate years were, often in these exact words, “the best brings great benefits to society. One measure years of my life.” of that is in Nobel Prizes: among Berkeley I hope that I have helped to sustain the “magic” of graduate alumni there are nearly as many Berkeley. One of my particular concerns, arising from my Nobel Laureates as have been produced by research as a faculty member, has been to try to keep the the entire nation of Canada. Our graduate doors open for the women students (about half of all alumni are serving as university presidents, graduate students) who choose to have a family while governors, Congressional representatives, completing their degrees or launching their careers. Our Supreme Court justices, ambassadors, and research has shown that a large proportion of our graduate leaders in journalism, engineering, and students who became mothers were not able to realize business. their career goals as professors. I am proud and encouraged They are everywhere. And they are that, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the you. I have enjoyed serving as your Dean. entire UC system has strengthened its family-friendly Next spring I will return to teaching, but I policies, from the graduate years through the early faculty will remain involved in graduate education. years. These innovations will, we hope, help all our I know that as you contemplate your own students and future faculty to fulfill their potential. time here, you will stay connected to the Public universities everywhere are fragile. We at campus and help make sure that Berkeley’s Berkeley need the support of our alums and friends to magic continues to inspire its students — maintain our unique position as a great research university and change the world. with open doors to the best and brightest. We count on you to help us do so. I know you too understand the exceptional magic of this incredible institution. Much of that magic lives in our graduate students Mary Ann Mason themselves, in each successive generation. Our graduate Dean of the Graduate Division students play essential roles in the twin missions of the Professor of Social Welfare university, assisting in the teaching of undergraduates and the performance of vital research. We have students now 2 TheGraduate • 2007 Graduate Division Contents University of California, Berkeley The Graduate • 2007 • Volume XIX, Number 2 Mary Ann Mason, Dean FEATURES Joseph J. Duggan, Associate Dean The parent rap: why babies matter in Carlos A. Fernandez-Pello, Associate Dean academia 4 Early babies, tenure babies, or no babies at Andrew Szeri, Associate Dean all? Mary Ann Mason explores the best time Moira Perez, to have a baby if you’re pursuing an Chief Administrative Officer academic career. — By Lisa Harrington Student Services & Support: Learning to teach, with a little help 10 Nationally recognized and emulated, the GSI Academic Appointments, 510-642-7101 Teaching & Resource Center prepares Academic Services, 510-643-9392 students for teaching at Berkeley and beyond. — By Dick Cortén Admissions, 510-642-7405 What makes the wheel go around 14 Communications & Events, 510-643-7358 An outstanding mentor shares the joys and Deans, 510-642-5472 day-to-day tug of working with GSIs. — By Dana Buntrock Degrees, 510-642-7330 Dateline: Berkeley 16 Fellowships, 510-642-0672 A look inside the Graduate School of Graduate Diversity Program, 510-643-6010 Journalism and the people behind its pizzazz and clout. GSI Teaching & Resource Center, 510-642-4456 p. 4 — By Dick Cortén A cerebral night in Berkeley 22 ON THE COVER Take a mind-expanding trip inside the human The Graduate brain with Aubrey Gilbert, a doctoral student Mary Ann Mason, Dean of the in the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. Lisa Harrington, Editor Graduate Division (left), walking — By Barry Bergman Dick Cortén, Senior Writer with graduate student Lorelei Mitchell and her baby, is the principal 24 Arnold Yip, Publications Coordinator Out of the lab to the top of the world investigator on several studies of how Ain’t no mountain high enough for trained The Graduate is published by the Graduate parenthood affects academic careers. Berkeley biophysical chemist who relishes Division. The Graduate is available online Her pathbreaking research has first ascents. (http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/publications). encouraged UC and other — By Arlene Blum We welcome your comments. universities to establish new family- Please send correspondence to: friendly policies for graduate Tour de Berkeley 26 students and faculty. A mainstay in the Visitor’s Center since his The Graduate Photo by Peter DaSilva freshman year, grad student Michael Colvin Graduate Division 325 Sproul Hall #5900 knows his way around campus. University of California — By Lisa Harrington Berkeley, CA 94720-5900 Email: [email protected] Remembrance 28 A. Richard Newton, Dean of Engineering: a life well lived, at lightning speed. Copyright 2007 — By Dick Cortén Regents of the University of California TheGraduate • 2007 3 The Parent Rap A conversation with Mary Ann Mason on why babies matter By Lisa Harrington A shared enterprise: Mary Ann Mason (walking with graduate student Lorelei Mitchell and her baby) has been in a unique position as dean of the Graduate Division to study work/life balance issues. From fireside chats with students to national speaking engagements, Mason is a tireless advocate for family-friendly policies. Another graduate student, Chrysanthi Leon, who is completing her Ph.D. this year (“in six years, along with a JD and a daughter who will be two”) says Mason’s “work on behalf of women in academia like me has made Berkeley a wonderful place, and has been part of my spiel to potential admits to our graduate program. My ability to finish was due to student family housing, University childcare, and the Normative Time Grant. I wish I had been able to benefit from paid maternity leave — this is a truly wonderful accomplishment.” (Maternity leave for supported women graduate students was approved by UC in February.) Adds Leon: “I will push for similar accommodations for grad students in Peter DaSilva photo my new position as an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Delaware.” Early babies, tenure babies, or no babies at all — is there a good time to have a baby in academe? “While the question seems so straightforward,” says Mary Ann Mason, dean of the Graduate Division, “there is no easy answer.” Mason has been pursuing the answer for some time. A gotten a lot of national attention, and other universities have felt professor in law and social welfare in the Graduate School of encouraged to follow suit. So it has been enormously important Social Welfare, she publishes and lectures nationally on child in spreading the ideas across the country.” and family law matters; the history of the American family In 2005, the presidents of nine research universities and of childhood; and public policy issues related to work and (Cal Tech, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, family, child custody, children’s rights, and stepfamilies. Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Yale) issued a joint statement on Among her publications are a major work on work/family gender equity in higher education that said, in part: “Our goal issues, The Equality Trap, and two major works on child as research universities is to create conditions in which all custody, From Father’s Property to Children’s Rights: A History faculty are capable of the highest level of academic achieve- of Child Custody in America and The Custody Wars: Why ment. Continuing to develop academic personnel policies, Children are Losing the Legal Battles and What We Can Do institutional resources, and a culture that support family about It. commitments is therefore essential for maximizing the For the past several years, Mason has been leading a productivity of our faculty.” major study on family formation issues called “Do Babies Last fall, the National Academy of Sciences published a Matter?” that has captured the attention of universities around major report, “Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the the world and received wide coverage in the media.