Hearing the news that U of T’s chief may be abandoning his stay here for the ostensibly more carefree beaches of sunny California, many emotions surged up in The Varsity’s collective chest: sadness, betrayal, maybe even a smidgen of jealousy. But really, we asked ourselves, who could blame him?
Birgeneau says that Berkeley is simply the best, and while we’re not quite sure about that, we admit it is quite nice. Last time we checked, cultural critic Judith Butler was still there, along with an all-star list boasting the cream of academia. Timothy Leary held court there in the sixties, experimentally mixing theory with lots of LSD. But most of all, the University of Cali is loaded – Berkeley’s budget alone is over a billon dollars. Hell, who wouldn’t ditch Toronto for that?
We’re just not totally sure why the Golden State wants the Birg so badly. Sure, there’s not a lot to him to complain about, but there’s not much to crow about either. He’s an accomplished speaker on some days, and an incoherent space cadet on others. You could say he’s U of T’s own Chrétien.
Maybe it’s because-and this is only speculation-Berkeley will be scoring its very own champion of diversity in our Prez, since, as he’s said, he has the gift of being “black on the inside.”
