Community Briefs

Monday, February 3, 1997

UCB chancellor search committee keeps quiet

Members of a committee charged with finding potential
replacements for Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien remained tight-lipped
late last week about reports that UC Berkeley economist Laura
D’Andrea Tyson is their top pick.

According to a report in the Sacramento Bee, Tyson is a favorite
of UC President Richard Atkinson because she spent four years in
Washington, D.C., first as chair of President Clinton’s Council of
Economic Advisers and then as head of the National Economic
Council.

Tyson returned to UC Berkeley in January. She could not be
reached for comment late last week.

The Bee report also named Stanford University Provost
Condoleezza Rice and UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry Yang as top
candidates. Also, UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor and Provost Carol
Christ remains in the top tier of prospective chancellors.

UCB activist dies of cancer at 73

Mitchell Goodman, a teacher and writer who became an outspoken
opponent of the Vietnam War during the 1960s, died Saturday at his
home in Maine. Goodman, who was 73, died of pancreatic cancer.

A native New Yorker, Goodman graduated with honors from Harvard
University, where he also attended graduate school. He taught
English and writing at New York’s City College, Stanford and the
University of California at Berkeley.

Goodman took part in early rallies to protest the Vietnam War.
As part of a group known as the Boston Five, Goodman was convicted
in 1968 of conspiracy to violate the Selective Service Act for his
support of draft resisters and sentenced to two years in prison. A
federal appeals court overturned the convictions.

Goodman became active in the anti-nuclear movement, opposed the
nuclear arms policies of the Reagan administration, opposed
Operation Desert Storm and took the side of strikers in a labor
dispute at a Jay, Maine, paper mill in 1987.

He is survived by his wife, Sandra Gregor; two sons, Nikolai
Goodman and Matthew Gregor Goodman and a brother.

UCSD study finds

tickling is not funny

In order to discover why people smile, laugh or even squirm when
tickled, a team of UC San Diego psychologists recently completed a
study that begins to reveal the true nature of this sensation.

"Even though tickling seems light hearted, almost silly, people
have wondered about it for a long time," said Christine Harris, a
UC San Diego psychology graduate student who, along with Assistant
Professor of Psychology Nicholas Christenfeld, proposed two of the
studies on tickling.

The subject group of the first test consisted of 72
undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 41. The group was
divided into thirds.

The first group viewed a 14-minute video of stand-up comedy from
"The Best of Saturday Night Live." Afterward, each was tickled by a
research assistant.

The second group was tickled first and then was shown the video,
while the third was shown a nature video and then tickled.

Subjects were tickled in various places, ranging from the bottom
of the foot, to parts of the torso, to the wrists and palms. The
researchers then measured the time the subjects spent laughing,
smiling, wiggling or asking for the activity to end.

The study supports the assumption that smiling and laughter
derived from humor has little in common with the same feelings
caused by tickling.

The study supports the view that tickling and humor do not share
the same underlying emotion. For instance, the subjects reported
that the experience was not at all positive, although they did
smile and laugh.

Compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports