[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/29/BAE71MTPH0.DTL]
A magical charm protects a small area of the UC Berkeley campus, it is said.
If that idea sounds incongruous with academia in general, then it's especially jarring to imagine that the supernatural safeguard envelops undergraduates studying unit vectors, metrology, emission mapping and other such grounded pursuits in Stephens Hall, headquarters for a diverse group of science geeks.
Yet that power is about to be tested.
The students face possible eviction from historic Stephens Hall as others eye their desirable location on the second floor of the 89-year-old Gothic-style building.
A similar threat came and went in 2008, after which artist Leonard Crow Dog Jr., son of the chief of the Lakota Sicangu Indians of South Dakota, painted the first of nine bold murals in the warren of hallways and rooms that form the students' study space.
"All my artwork is spiritual and is a protector for the rooms," Crow Dog said of the paintings that transform bland white walls into worlds of lightning, flames and feathers, stags, wolves and eagles, planets, comets - even a double helix.
" 'Thunderbird' was my first mural," the artist said of the purple, blue and yellow depiction of an ancient Lakota story about a boy who, aiming high like the students, wins a chance to fly. "I put my prayers on it, and it kept everything safe for a while."
With each new painting, Crow Dog, a fifth-generation medicine man, lit South Dakota sage or sweetgrass and waved the smoke onto the mural in blessing, imbuing each with protective power, he said.
But what's to protect?
A special place -
Those who flock to Stephens Hall at all hours are a rare group: They are more than 80 black, brown, white female, poor or first-generation college students majoring in math, science or engineering. At Stephens they find mentoring, tutoring, professional workshops and networking opportunities through a program called New Experiences for Research & Diversity in Science. That's right: NERDS.
"It's a place to figure out what we want to do with our lives," said Noel Pacheco, a chemical engineering student who sat on a red sofa beneath an eagle with lightning flashing from its eyes.
"Say we did terrible on a midterm," explained his friend Meghan Chandarana, who studies mechanical engineering. "You can come in here and talk to someone who has gone through the same thing. You can de-stress."
Students say some of the murals' magic lies in their power to calm frayed nerves and help them feel less alone.
"They make this feel like a community space," Pacheco said. "I'm not sure if they have a mystical effect, but they make us feel at home and comforted."
An inspiration -
That's exactly the idea. "I put tranquil, powerful murals in every room. We're trying to de-zombify these students," said Crow Dog, 30, whose wife, Victoria Crow Dog, a Yaki Indian, was in NERDS. The software support engineer graduated from Cal in 2007.
Even professors relish the environment. "When I walk in and look at the murals, I feel inspired and closer to the students," said Alice Agogino, a mechanical engineer who brings students to the Pinoleville Pomo Nation near Ukiah to build sustainable homes.
She also teaches ethics and said the murals can inspire students to use science to do good in the world.
"I don't see any bombs in those murals," Agogino observed.
In 2008, the Townsend Center for the Humanities came sniffing around the rooms occupied by NERDS and its companion Professional Development Program for math, science and engineering students, which has been at Stephens Hall since the 1970s.
The Townsend people backed off. But the scare led NERDS to employ stronger protection. Supporters ponied up for the murals, which Crow Dog says are now worth $40,000 to $50,000. Where appropriate, he painted in the words "NERDS" and "Professional Development Program" for added aegis against outside claims.
New institute on campus -
Though the engineering students can't use their usual methods of tensile or compression testing to measure the strength of the murals' power, it's about to be tested anyway.
A new Institute for Integrative Social Sciences is seeking a home on campus, and NERDS' rooms look mighty appealing. They sit on a quadrangle across from three social science strongholds: the Townsend Center, the Institute for International Studies and the Institute for Governmental Studies.
No decisions have been made, Carla Hesse, social sciences dean, said. But having all sites on one quadrangle is of interest for a new Humanities-Social Sciences Research Complex.
"The murals would be fully respected in any of these plans," Hesse said.
But NERDS students don't want to move. They have told Hesse and Gibor Basri, vice chancellor for equity and inclusion, that Stephens is perfect because it lies along the well-worn path between their math and science classes.
They fear losing students if the headquarters is moved away to, say, blocky Barrows Hall, as has been suggested. Unlike Stephens, Barrows, at the edge of campus, is also closed at night to keep the homeless from wandering in, they said.
A moving dilemma -
Ultimately, the murals themselves may be in need of preternatural protection because the administrators suggested to the students that they be moved.
"I don't see how you can move murals," Chandarana said. "They're on the wall."
Pacheco said, "Even if we were able to move them, I don't think the Native American community would be too pleased."
"I know," Chandarana said. "You can't just re-bless something."
Artist Leonard Crow Dog Jr. painted nine murals on the walls of UC Berkeley's Stephens Hall.
Photo: Lance Iversen / The Chronicle
Meghan Chandarana and Noel Pacheco of the the engineering club known as NERDS stands in front of one of Leonard Crow Dog's murals at Stephens Hall at University of California in Berkeley.
Photo: Lacy Atkins / The Chronicle
A student walks past a mural on a wall used by UC Berkeley's New Experiences for Research & Diversity, or NERDS.
Photo: Lacy Atkins / The Chronicle
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