UC Berkeley is being evacuated after an underground fire. pic.twitter.com/XDeuSiI52K

— Joe Vazquez (@joenewsman) October 1, 2013

A power outage at UC Berkeley prefaced a major explosion on Monday night, resulting in a campus-wide evacuation. The fire, it seems, stemmed from a vault under California Hall close to the center of campus, with the initial blast reportedly shooting up in the air some 20-40 feet.

Eyewitness Peter Myers notes, "There was an explosion at about 6:40, followed instantly by fireball coming out of a manhole cover that came about 30-40 feet high. I guess that was the old generator they were talking about." While Cal sophomore Jennifer Han explains to The Daily Californian, "At first, I was really scared because I thought the explosion was big enough to produce a shock wave ... You heard it first, and then there were flames."

The Daily Californian has more:

According to [UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode], the explosion appears to be related to vandalism discovered by the campus late last week. Vandals were stealing or attempting to steal copper grounding wire from an electrical system not readily visible, and the damage appears to be more extensive than initially believed, he said.

After the explosion appeared to come from a manhole grate, campus police advised students to stay away from any manholes on campus. Officials are not allowing anyone to enter the campus and have instructed everyone to evacuate through the north and west entrances.

At least one student was whisked to a nearby hospital to be treated for minor injuries. A handful of others had to be rescued from elevators that stopped during the outage.

Below, the jarring blaze shooting from the vault:

The campus remains closed as of tonight. No word yet as to whether or not classes will resume on Tuesday.

UPDATE: Updates regarding class schedule will happen early tomorrow morning (Oct. 1) at around 5 AM. We're also hearing word, via commenter Michael Ball, that the campus has reopened.

UPDATE II: Things are back to normal, more or less, with only 11 buildings sans power. Most classes have resumed.

[Chron]
[Daily Cal]
[SF Appeal]

Did you know that several students at UC Berkeley are once again in the midst of a hunger strike? True. This time they're protesting the erosion of the school's Ethnic Studies program. According to Berkeleyside, eight people are now "entering their eighth day without eating to protest the controversial consolidation of Ethnic Studies with other social science programs, resulting in staff reductions and the demotion of faculty to half-time." And despite their efforts and demands -- which, among other things, include staff reinstatement and for Cal to "publicly acknowledge the unfulfilled promise to create a Third World College at the university" -- protesters have yet to reach a deal with school administrators.

Carleen Sanchez, vice president of the National Association for Ethnic Studies, explained to the Berkeley Daily Planet why such programs are crucial: "Ethnic studies are under assault...Administrators do not recognize the importance of ethnic studies...Given our origins in civil rights, I think that that type of direct action and individual sacrifice is part of our history...A hunger strike is not silly.”

Furthermore, Sanchez went on to point out a law signed last year by vapid anti-civil rights Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, one that "bans classes 'designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group,' or which 'advocate ethnic solidarity instead of treatment of pupils as individuals from K-12 classrooms.' "

Protesters plan on continuing their hunger strike for the remainder of the week.

UCPD released two sketchs of the man they suspect of sexually assaulting at least two UC Berkeley students on campus earlier this month. The first incident, according to campus police, occurred thusly:

On Thursday, April 7, 2011, at 11:20 p.m. a female UC Berkeley student reported to UCPD that she was a victim of a sexual battery (via inappropriate grabbing) that occurred earlier at approximately 10:50 p.m. on the east side of the Valley Life Sciences Building (VLSB). The victim stated that the suspect was last seen heading southbound toward Dwinelle Hall. The victim was not injured during the incident. UCPD responded to the scene and is actively investigating this case.

The victim described her assailant as a white man in his late 20s, blonde or light brown hair, unshaved and with what she described as "bad teeth." Around 5' 6", he was sporting a red/white stripe knitted wool jacket with a hood up covering his head.

The second, more violent attack happened one week later:

On Friday, April 8, 2011, at approximately 12:30 a.m. a female UC Berkeley student was the victim of robbery and sexual assault in area of Haviland Grove. The victim was walking northbound in the vicinity of the Haviland Grove when the suspect approached her from behind and robbed her. The suspect then forced the victim off the path and made her perform a sexual act on him. The suspect was last seen heading northbound from the scene. UCPD responded to the scene and searched for the suspect with negative results

The victim in the second attack described the suspect as a white male in his 20s with short brown hair, unshaven in appearance, around 5’7”, thin build, wearing a blue denim overalls, a green sweatshirt and a dark tight fitting cap with a small brim.

UCB police urge anyone who witnessed or have any information about the aforementioned incidents to call the Criminal Investigations Bureau at 510-642-0472.

Also, UCPS offers walking escorts 365 nights per year. "Uniformed UCPD student employees will meet you at your PICK-UP point to walk you to your destination within service boundaries. At the dispatcher's discretion, marked campus vehicle may be used by BearWALK to handle requests made in the early morning hours." For more details, visit the UCPD site.

After 17 protesters were arrested last week during UC Berkeley's Wheeler Hall occupation, 14 were smacked with misdemeanor charges on Monday. "Eleven protesters were charged on a single count of trespassing by the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, reports Daily Cal. "Three were charged on both trespassing and obstructing a peace officer, after allegedly having to be carried out of Wheeler Hall by the police in order to be arrested." Protesters' demands ranged from halting budget cuts to the democratization the UC Board of Regents. [Daily Cal]

After 17 protesters were arrested earlier this week over UC budget cuts, among other isues, eight demonstrators occupied a fourth-story ledge at UC Berkeley's Wheeler Hall. Riot police were called in to use force on both the building squatters and supporters outside the building. Pepper spray was used against several demonstrators, and some protesters reported being hit with batons.

"All of a sudden, I was surrounded by riot police who were hitting me in the stomach and head," senior Pourya Khademi reveals to the Daily Cal. "Just as I was turning away, another one sprayed me directly in the face."

Some of the protesters' demands were met, but the hefty requests were squashed as expected. "Demands to have student conduct charges dropped and to open a dialogue about the campus Operational Excellence program were partially met, while demands to end budget cuts and to democratize the UC Board of Regents were not."

Here are some images from yesterday's melee shot by local photographer Keoki Seu.

[Daily Cal]

Californ(ia) fans cheer on the Golden Bears during the first half of an NCAA college football game against UC Davis Saturday. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

On Saturday night, eight protesters were arrested after breaking windows, lights and planters outside the home of University of California at Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau. "University spokesman Dan Mogulof said 40 to 70 protesters also threw lighted torches at police cars and the home of ... Birgeneau late Friday," says AP. No fires or injuries were reported.

The protest cum vandalism was sparked by either against state funding cuts -- ones that "have led to course cutbacks, faculty furloughs and sharp fee increases" -- or the romantic feeling of protesting for the sake of protesting. (Look for further than the case of Oscar Grant to see that, at times, the Bay Area veers toward the latter.)

Charged with "rioting, threatening an education official, attempted burglary, attempted arson of an occupied building, felony vandalism and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer," your arrested warriors of justice are:

• Julia Litmancleper, 20
• Angela Miller, 20 (UCB students)
• Zachary Bowin, 21 (UCB student)
• Laura Thatcher, 21
• John Friesen, 25
• James Carwil, 34
• David Morse, 41 (!)
• Donnell Allen, 41 (!!!)

Early this morning, 65 protesters occupying UCB's Wheeler Hall were arrested. Joined by officers from other UC campuses, UC Berkeley police started arresting protesters at around 4:40 a.m., reports SF Chron.

"There was no force, no confrontation, nobody resisted," campus spokesman Dan Moguloftold SF Chron. "At most, it was a wake-up call: They were sleeping."

The demonstrators, it seemed, planned on leaving tonight; however, authorities "decided to move in early today because of a widely publicized hip-hop party in support of the demonstrators that was to have started in Wheeler at 8 p.m.," (A hip hop party? How pretentious.)

This morning's arrest come on the heels of a slew of SFSU protesters who were arrested at the state campus' Business building. They too were angry about (unfair?) budget cuts and fee hikes. (Welcome to the real world, kids.)

The kids at UC Berkeley have even more reason to brag about their top-ranked stoner school today. Cal will be sending two research students abroad to play beer pong in more esteemed and invigorating settings via the awe-inspiring Fulbright program. The lucky students are:

• Nicholas Crawford: a postdoctoral fellow in statistics, studying "stochastic geometry and quantum many body problems" (!) at the TECHNION-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. (Bonus: he's cute.)
• Letitia Brown: research affiliate in environmental science, policy and management, who plans on studying forest fragmentation in the Northern Atlantic rain forest at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Natal, Brazil.

An international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright program is the most prestigious award for learnin' types. More Fulbright alumni have won Nobel Prizes than those of any other academic program, says Wikipedia, and boasts having such noted alumni as Sylvia Plath, John Lithgow, and Rocky IV's Dolph Lundgren.

While j-schoolers at Cal are busy bemoaning the state of the Journalism and perfecting that well-worn journalist look (hint: spiral notepad, unkempt hair, elbow patches, lots of chin scratching), a hacker breached UC Berkeley's School of Journalism server in July. According to the Daily Cal, "500 applicants to the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism were notified [Tuesday] that their Social Security numbers and other private data may have been compromised in a recent campus security breach." This most recent hacking affects "people who applied to the school between September 2007 and May 2009." While, most likely, no one is at real risk of any serious identity damage -- real journalism students have neither a hefty bank nor decent credit -- students were notified weeks after the actual attack. According to Shelton Waggener, the school's "associate vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer," a delay in notification is typical in these situations. "It just takes time to do the investigation," he said. "Once we were certain of as much info as we could be, we began the notification process and developing the notification strategy."

SFist's thinner, younger, and more attractive brethren over at UC-Berkeley want you to be on the lookout for this guy (at left) who has been sexually assaulting dames near Greek Row (or whatever it's called) near Cal. He preferred method is to approach the female prey from behind and lift their skirts.

The Clog goes on to report that "he tends to attack between 10 p.m and 3 a.m. on the south side of campus. He’s described as white, in his 20s or 30s, around 5 feet and 10 inches. He is of medium build and has short, dark wavy hair." So, if you see this guy coming at you from behind in a most vulgar fashion, be sure to scream, run, and/or stab him. But, as always, use caution.

Police are warning women in Berkeley that an attacker in on the prowl near the UC Berkeley campus. So far three "college-aged" women have been attack just south of the UCB campus. In one case, according to reports, "the suspect approached the victim from behind, lifted her skirt and tried to sexually assault her." The creep is allegedly focusing "on women who are wearing skirts." Happening last Saturday, the first reported assault was at 12:30 a.m. at Bowditch and Channing, the second at 1:30 a.m. at Channing Way and Piedmont Avenue, and the third at 2:30 a.m. in the on Warring Street. The dude is described as "a white male between 20 and 30 years old who is between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-9 and is of medium build with short dark hair." A $2,000 reward is being offered for info leading to his arrest. Call Berkeley PD at 510-981-5735 or 981-5734.