Berkeley

...it’s dismaying to realize that the grandeur of Berkeley (and the remarkable success of the University of California system, of which Berkeley is the flagship) is being jeopardized by shortsighted politicians and California’s colossally dysfunctional budget processes.

Berkeley is caught in a full-blown budget crisis with nothing much in the way of upside in sight. The school is trying to cope with what the chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, described as a “severe and rapid loss in funding” from the state, which has shortchanged Berkeley’s budget nearly $150 million this year, and cut more than $800 million from the higher education system as a whole.

Bob Herbert writes up the Berkeley budget crisis in the context of America's larger infrastructural collapse on the op-ed page of The New York Times. Odd to see no reference to the recent walk-outs; that seems like it would be a part of the story worth mentioning.