Berkeley Pipeline Shutoff

From the San Francisco Chronicle: UC Berkeley shutting down rare pipeline for doctorates of color. Its supporters are fighting back

...For decades, the ISSI [Institute for the Study of Societal Issues] at UC Berkeley has served as a pipeline into the social sciences — sociology, psychology, anthropology, public health, ethnic studies, criminal justice and more — particularly for people of color. Its unique formula for guiding students like Rios to their doctorates and beyond has worked like a well-tuned car since its founding in 1976.

So why kill it? UC Berkeley says one problem is that the pandemic has dried up the flow of rescue funds for the financially strapped institute. But just as troubling, the school says, is that it resides in a historic building that is falling apart — and there’s nowhere else for it to go. Campus officials may be able to find space for some of the ISSI’s six component parts, they say, but not for all of them, and certainly not together. Supporters say that having all the ISSI components together is its magic. Without that, the formula falls apart...

Alumni are fighting back. With petitions, testimonials and letters to top administrators, they want to persuade UC Berkeley to keep the ISSI open. From the university’s perspective, the problem is money. When the ISSI saw hard times in the last 44 years, UC Berkeley or the University of California president’s office always came through. Not now...

The ISSI is a network of six centers identified by their academic focus — Ethnographic Research, Social Medicine, Latinx Research, Native American Issues, Research on Social Change and Right-Wing Studies — and a competitive Graduate Fellows Program for doctoral students, which gives them a stipend so they can study instead of teach or hold down another job...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/UC-Berkeley-shutting-down-rare-pipeline-for-15828740.php