A week in UC news

UC Berkeley sued for not disclosing existence of Law Students for Justice in Palestine records

Former UC Berkeley affiliate, Robbie Powelson, filed a lawsuit against UC Berkeley after he filed a public records request from the University and allegedly did not receive confirmation of the records’ existence.

Powelson filed the request in September for records pertaining to UC Berkeley School of Law’s policies that restricted the actions of Law Students for Justice in Palestine (LSJP). Berkeley law prohibited LSJP from tabling at a Berkeley Law event and from co-sponsoring another event because of the group’s bylaws which ban Zionist speakers. 

Since UC Berkeley’s alleged antisemitism settlement with the Brandeis Center, Berkeley Law created a policy that barred registered student organizations from having bylaws restricting event speakers. Consequently, Berkeley Law has designated LSJP as an informal student group (ISG) — groups which are not allowed to co-sponsor Berkeley Law events. 

However, UC Berkeley allows a third type of group, non-UC Berkeley groups, to co-sponsor events. Powelson alleges that there is no clear distinction between ISGs and non-UC Berkeley groups. This led Powelson to file a public records request for Berkeley Law’s new student organization policies and communications related to LSJP and the Brandeis Center settlement. 

According to the California Public Records Act, agencies have 10 days from the request date to determine if the records exist and notify the requesting party of their existence. UC Berkeley’s public records office told Powelson that his request “likely does seek disclosable records,” which Powelson alleges violated the 10-day window of response because it was not explicitly stated that the records exist. 

Former UC Davis Equestrian team members file sex-based discrimination lawsuit against the University

19 former UC Davis Equestrian team members have filed a lawsuit against the University over allegedly depriving its female athletes of financial aid to which the funds were used to give additional aid to male athletes. 

The former members allege UC Davis has violated Title IX and calls on the University to pay $1.4 million in financial damages for alleged misappropriation of funds from 2023 to 2025. The lawsuit claims that the University has not paid its female athletes equal athletic financial aid since the 2017-18 academic year. 

UC Davis has denied any wrongdoing and stated that it believes it is in compliance with Title IX. 

Earlier this year, UC Davis demoted the NCAA Division I Women’s Equestrian program to a campus club sport, citing financial concerns. This decision came after the team won every conference meet of their 2025-26 season and secured their third Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship title.

UC Davis Athletics used a private consulting group to conduct an independent external assessment of its finances. A Title IX analysis of the consulting report showed a discrepancy in financial aid between men and women, which prompted the lawsuit. 

UC scientists win Ernest Orlando Lawrence Awards from the Department of Energy

The Department of Energy (D.O.E.) has awarded the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award to three UC national laboratory scientists and two former postdoctoral fellows for their research contributions to the D.O.E. missions in science, energy and national security. 

The Lawrence Award, created in 1959, honors mid-career scientists and engineers whose research has supported the D.O.E.’s mission to advance the national, economic and energy security of the U.S.

Patrick Chain of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and New Mexico Consortium was awarded for his “pioneering work in genomics and microbiome science, including discoveries of new bacterial-fungal interactions and revolutionizing the field by democratizing access to advanced bioinformatics tools.”

“His research helps build the scientific foundation we need to anticipate and respond to emerging threats to health, energy, and economic security,” Laboratory Deputy Director Patrick Fitch said. 

Samuel Williams of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was honored for performance modeling, hardware/software design optimization and novel computer architecture for high-performance computing. Andrea Kritcher of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was awarded for the first-ever achievement of fusion ignition in the laboratory. 

Lijuan Ruan of the Brookhaven National Laboratory was awarded for her leadership in the design, construction and operation of the new detector systems in the S.T.A.R. experiment. Lastly, Eric Schelter was honored for his “fundamental chemical studies of energy-critical metals leading to new methods for their selective and sustainable separations.”

A version of this article appeared on p. 2 of the Oct. 29 print edition of the Daily Nexus.