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Former U.S. Solicitor General Drew S. Days III is scheduled to give a lecture here next week about the Canadian Constitution, specifically a provision with a connection to �ٺ���Ƶ history.

Days

Days is delivering the annual Edward L. Barrett Jr. Lecture on Constitutional Law, named after the law school’s founding dean. Days' lecture is set for 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in the Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom in King Hall, with a reception to follow.

Days, a member of the Yale law faculty since 1981, served as assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Carter administration and solicitor general in the Clinton administration.

His Barrett lecture topic is “Equalizing Equality: The Canadian Record After Three Decades of Constitutionally-Authorized Affirmative Action,” referring to that country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its endorsement of any law aimed at  ameliorating the conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups.

According to a School of Law news release, the provision stemmed in part from Canada’s broad disapproval of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1978 ruling in the Allan Bakke case. Bakke had sued UC after twice being rejected for admission to the �ٺ���Ƶ School of Medicine, in 1973 and 1974; Bakke, who is white, claimed reverse discrimination — in that the school held out 16 spaces for “minorities.”

In a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978 found the quota to be unconstitutional, but held that affirmative action programs could be constitutional in some circumstances.

Four years after the court’s ruling, the Bakke decision spurred Canadians to secure constitutional authority for affirmative action in 1982. And today, 30 years later, the country continues to debate the appropriate terms and conditions under which such affirmative action should be permitted.

9 Billion Mouths to Feed: final episode

"High Tech Agriculture," the fourth and final episode in the �ٺ���Ƶ-produced documentary 9 Billion Mouths to Feed: The Future of Farming, is scheduled to debut Tuesday (Nov. 13) on UC's YouTube channel, . The video will also be available on the , where the third episode, "Keeping It Green," is now posted.

Answering the cooling center's challenge

A major global manufacturer has built a rooftop air conditioner that is 40 percent more energy-efficient than conventional units — responding to a challenge from the �ٺ���Ƶ Western Cooling Efficiency Center.

Trane, a provider of heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, is the second manufacturer to achieve Western Cooling Challenge certification — the most demanding of its kind. The Western Cooling Efficiency Center established the challenge in 2008 to help manufacturers develop more efficient cooling technologies, particularly for hot, arid climates, such as in California. The program also helps building owners install and use the new products.

Trane achieved �ٺ���Ƶ certification for the Voyager DC, a hybrid rooftop air conditioner that uses indirect, evaporative cooling to increase cooling capacity and reduce peak electrical demand.  

“Trane’s Voyager DC met our performance goals on the mark, and promises to be one of the most cost effective, climate-appropriate cooling technologies available for commercial buildings,” said Jonathan Woolley, associate engineer at the Western Cooling Efficiency Center.

Yudof chooses Columbia dean to lead Berkeley campus

Nicholas B. Dirks, Columbia University’s executive vice president and dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences, is UC President Mark G. Yudof's choice to succeed Robert J. Birgeneau as Berkeley chancellor.

Yudof made the announcement on Nov. 8. The appointment will be put to a vote of the Board of Regents at a special meeting in late November.

Dirks, 61, the Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology and History at Columbia and the author of three books on India, would take office as Berkeley's 10th chancellor on June 1.

Birgeneau announced in March that he would step down as chancellor at the end of December, and has now agreed to serve through May

Benefits enrollment is open!

began Oct. 29 and continues until 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 20.

This is the time set aside each year to enroll in or opt out of UC-sponsored medical, dental and vision plans; transfer to different medical and dental plans; add eligible family members to your medical, dental, vision and legal plans; opt in or out of TIP (tax savings on insurance premiums); and enroll or re-enroll in the health and dependent care flexible spending accounts.

This year also brings the opportunity to enroll in the UC-sponsored legal plan (enrollment in this plan is not open every year).

If you are not making any changes to your coverage, you need not do anything during open enrollment — with one exception: If you have a health or dependent care flexible spending account, and you wish to re-enroll, you must take action during open enrollment. Re-enrollment is not automatic.