>> good evening. welcome to "this week in northern california." joining me for insight and analysis of the news are julian guthrie, "san francisco chronicle" reporter. cara swisher, editor of "all things digital." and kque education reporter. it's that time of the year when students go back to school. but for one top education official, it's time to exit. university of california president mark uedoff leaves his post after five years on the job. under his tenure the ten-campus system saw tuition nearly double. but he also reformed uc's pension plan and expanded financial aid. this week reporting on the impending departure what do you think his legacy will be? >> i think it depends who you talk to. that's the interesting part about him when is you talk to administrators, regents, students, some students, they'll say, you know, he really helped low-income students get access to the uc system. if it's called a blue and gold opportunity plan. and so basically, families that earned $80,000 and below, you've got financial aid to go to any of these institutions. he also toward the end helped middle class students also with kind of a set-aside system as well. he also did a lot to reform the pension system for the uc employees. so with that, you know, a lot of people said he set the uc on a good trajectory. but then you have, you know, the huge core of students who, like you said, doubling of tuition from $5,000 a year to $11,000 a year, during that time okaying executive salaries. when you talk about what do you -- how do you measure success for a uc president? if you're ultimately talking about what is impacting students, it's hard to not look at his legacy and see that huge tuition hike and how he became such a lightning rod of criticism around that. during the occupy movement and there was rallies all over the place at uc berkeley, they called him out as being the top 1%, that he was disconnected, that he had no business being in education and speaking for students because students just simply didn't feel like he had their back. >> and students protested against him and demanded his firing at one point. he has definitely made some accomplishments that you talked about earlier, financial aid to greater amounts of students. did he have any big regrets? >> i think maybe one of the big regrets is something that was out of his control, really. when he entered five years ago, the economy was plummeting. he entered during the worst economic time for higher education, public education in general. so, i mean, i think he does regret having to pull the lever on tuition. but when you talk to him, you know, he lays it out for you there was really no other option for him to take. they cut in every other possible way, and tuition was the only really thing that they could do to keep the system afloat or at least not compromising its quality. >> what's the sense of, in terms of the next leader of the system, what's being looked for? >> well, i mean, it's interesting. because students, when i was doing my reporting, i asked them, you know, what do you think of mark eudoff? they say, mark who? >> really, not in a joking manner? >> they really don't know who he is. it speaks to the disconnect. students are in this bubble, they want to do their work, they want their degree, they want to leave. some who are a little bit more active, more politically speaking, they know who the main players are. so i think students are more succinct when you ask what kind of leader do you want, versus what do you think of this leader that you now have? so what they talk to me about in wanting a leader is someone who can really identify with students. i mean, bottom line is they want someone who can mix and mingle, who will come on campus, who will attend athletic events. someone who can be personal. widmark eudoff, you didn't have that, a lot of people said. he was very much removed. a lot of people criticized him for not being very forceful in sacramento. but that wasn't really his style. i think with the new leader, janet napolitano who's coming on board, i think we'll see a little bit forceful advocate. maybe lawmakers being a little bit more fearful of what she might bring. she'll bring a lot of clout, a lot of pull with her. >> she definitely has a lot of connections. she used to head homeland security. what do you think the challenges will be for her, the educational climate? different, now there's a greater student to faculty ratio. online courses are seeing a popularity. do you think there will be a trend towards that in the uc system? >> yeah, i mean, i think the first thing she's going to have to do is sit and listen. she said that, that she needs to listen to the constituents of the university and press a lot of flesh in sacramento. but i think the main thing that is she is entering a time where proposition 30 which was the voter-approved measure is bringing in about $250 million. so this is a first time uc's actually getting some money. so it's on a better path than it was five years ago. and so she'll have to know now what to do with that money, where she wants to channel it. and online education's going to be a huge issue. she's going to have to grapple with, diversity is going to be another one. and also just making the governor know that you know, no more tuition hikes and the that will be an interesting conversation they'll have, i'm sure. >> mark eudoff leaves on the 30th of this month and janet napolitano right after? >> right after. >> we'll see how it works out, thank you. speculation, anticipation and questions as apple is set to make a major announcement on tuesday. among the rumors, updates to the curt iphone 5. new colors and perhaps even lower-priced phones to grab greater market share. which of these rumors are likely to pan out? how do you think it will affect apple? >> it's an important moment for apple because they've gotten beat up in the stock market for not being innovative enough in the wake of steve jobs' death and the takeover by cook, a different ceo. to do the important roll-out, one will be a sort of jacked-up iphone 5 with a whole bunch of things. including a possible fingerprint sensor, better chip, colors, better camera, things like that. >> better flash? >> better flash, exactly. then the champagne color with one of them. people do care about those things. right now you can have white or black. >> what's the -- >> fingerprint, a fingerprint sensor so you can do all kinds of -- we don't know what all the applications doctor toing, like a password. >> for when you put on the phone, that will be your fingerprint, you no longer need to punch in a four-digit code. >> recognition, facial recognition, fingerprints, eye recognition, things like that. >> possibly a cheaper phone? >> it's not possibly, they're doing a cheaper phone. >> what price range? >> depends where you are. subsidized in different countries. that pushes more for the rest of the world. they will sell them here but their market share is pretty good here in the united states. but they're moving massachusetts china and they've been moving into china and selling phones. but their phones are too expensive for many people except big cities like shanghai and beijing. >> in china about $200. >> they aspire to the iphone but it's like $800 in china to buy one. it's not the same system here. so they're looking for a $400 phone that is a cheaper phone and has -- works better with their wireless system and things like that. the people want that phone. they just can't afford it right now. they're looking for a phone that has more appeal to a broader range of people. >> speaking of china, are we going to hear of new deals with china, japan? >> china, i think that's where everybody's focused. they're in with two of the big mobile providers and now i think rumors, i think it's correct that they're going to do a deal with china mobile, the biggest, ten times the size of verizon, 700 million customers. these are huge numbers in china. apple has been losing market share there, losing revenues. samsung has been gaining. >> absolutely, 100%. >> that's their primary competitor. >> right, exactly. they've got to have an offering to people so they can keep up their market share and improve it. >> market soft is trying to catch up, recent deal with nokia. >> they're not catching up. >> they would like it. >> cara, bigger picture, apple, creativi creativity, the future without the iconic steve jobs. there's been a lot of debate about how well apple will do. what would you say? >> all the other people are still there. i always say it wasn't like he was willy wonka and they were the oompa loompas. johnny's been in charge of the soft waive, they'll get a software update, so we'll see if they can really create -- jobs had a reality distortion field around announcements and tim is not as good at that. the question will come down to products people want to buy. going into a cheaper phone is long in companying and probably should have happened sooner. jobs was always opposed to that. >> it's brand new product, with apple under steve jobs, we saw a decade where the ipad, ipod, iphone, incredible era of innovation. do you think what happens next tuesday would be enough to -- >> no. >> -- >> quell criticism -- >> it's not over but great stuff in a short time period. barring a magic unicorn, what is anybody going to create? it's so much innovation that's happened in a short period of time. the expectations are high for apple. and so they haven't -- i think the watch is going to be something people are going to be looking at. >> the smartwatch? >> the smartwatch. >> what about apple tv? >> they already have apple tv, they're probably going to improve the software but it's not going to be new. if you take your phone to someone's house that has apple tv, you can stream it on for system without signing in or signing them off, that's to meet the chrome cast which is google's offer where you can push anything to the television. >> when will they make a bigger screen? i understand this phone will probably go to 4.3, which is minuscule. why not 5? >> they have reasons. power reasons. all kinds -- they give lots of reasons when they talk about it. tim talked about that, why they don't do it. i think that's a good question. apple's always marched to its own drummer, its own look, so i think it's very hard for them to want to offer all kinds of different things. i think they'll get there eventually. they feel like they have the mini ipad, larger ipad, iphone, that covers it. now samsung has 90 different things. one that looks like a waffle, stuff like that. so i think the question is, this is a single company that wants to keep a very strict design principle which worked very well for them. and now the others are catching up rather quickly and that's always been their challenge. we'll see what happens. >> what do you think is the biggest challenge for apple? obviously it wants to enter the chinese market. $200 phone -- >> can it afford to? >> absolutely. i think this will be interesting. eventually prices will come down. if they sell 40 million of them, sure. >> they were successful in diversifying with the ipad, itouch -- >> they've got to keep up market share. they make most of the money. we talk about goog gool's andro android, apple pull in the lion's share of the profits and the that's where -- they do, they make most of the money, but they still continue to make a lot of the money in this market. it's more than that. it's about services and software. that's where i think they need -- itunes is awful. so they have to innovate, they don't do any social -- iphone's social. that's the thing i see as being innova innovative. >> what about the mapping? are they coming back with mapping after that huge fiasco? >> they're not that bad. >> i can't let you go without talking about the ruling regarding the e-book pricing. >> there's nothing final. >> whether there was conspiracy there and apple lost. what was the ruling that came down regarding penalty? >> penalty's better than initially asked for by the department of justice. so everybody got pained a little bit, stuff taken away, but it's -- apple's going to appeal, we'll see where it goes from there. >> we'll look forward to tuesday's announcement from apple, thank you. the americas cup fine as are starting this weekend amid scandal. oracle team usa received a penalty being called the harshest in the history of the event. the jury decided the team placed illegal weights in the catamaran, docked the team points, levied a $250,000 fine, and banned three members from the event. you wrote a book about americas cup. how unusual is this type of cheating and what impact will it have on the race as a whole this. >> this is the oldest trophy in international sport. 162 years old. since the very first race, there's been drama, there's been intrigue, there have been allegations of spying, of stealing secrets. fraught with drama. i think to actually call it cheating at this level, i would say it was a really dumb thing that a few guys at oracle racing team did, also a draconian punishment. it was like taking a bag of m&ms and get a 20-year sentence. it was bad what they did was wrong, but it was four people, really, in a team of 130 people. so that's about 2% of their workforce. in much of corporate america you'd be happy if you had that tiny figure in terms of people doing something blatantly wrong. it was a harsh penalty, $250,000 was a big deal, taking the skipper for oracle racing, taking his wingman off the boat. one of the most respected sailors, dirk deritter, veteran guy. they put 3.5 to 5-pound weights in a forward pole which sailors call a dolphin striker which is a very politically incorrect term, they put these weights there, and -- >> how does that change the performance of the boat? >> incrementally, if at all. >> it could shave a second off. this is a fast boat. >> super fast bows. incrementally. it was a really dumb thing to do. i would say if they were going to set out to cheat they would have done something much more effective. because it was such a -- incremental, if at all -- >> they could have cheated better. >> if you're going to go that direction. >> the other thin is, it's san francisco, that's another thing, made a big deal of this and caused a lot of attention. >> larry ellison, you're writing a profile of larry ellison, did you talk to him about any of this? >> no, i'm sure he has an excellent explanation. >> he really, you know, he wants to play and he wants to play ethically. people will be disbelieving of that statement. he is fiercely competitive, he wants to win but not at all costs. of course he'd think this was a colossal screwup, dumb. draconian punishment. >> the punishment's because it's larry. know what i mean? >> yeah. >> they can't look like they're creatures of larry ellison here at this this thing. >> there's things going on with this international jury. for one thing there is a new zealander on the jury who many people think should have recused himself or the international sailing federation should have -- new zealand is the team that is up against the americans. there's no american juror -- >> it's the americas cup. >> everybody's taking hot shots at the team. they opened themselves up to it in a way but there's a lot of amazing stuff that is going on. >> it's in the past, what's going on now? >> the final start tomorrow, a showdown on the water between oracle, the defender, which won, larry ellison fought for ten years to try to win, won 2010, brought it back to america for the first time in 15 years, created space-age flying machines on the water, the ac 72 catamarans -- >> which we won't see again. unless they get much cheaper and less dramatic -- >> much. $100 million venture. each sand date is spending $100 million -- >> team oracle against the emirates new zealand. talk about the economics of this. at one point it was estimated that it would bring in a lot of money to the city. obviously it's writing in some money but not anywhere near what was thought. >> the original estimate $1.2 billion it would bring in. the most recent estimate is around $900 million in revenue to the city. so it's still a great boon to the city, a huge amount of money. end of the day, we'll see. people should keep an open mind. the races are going to be pretty cool to watch. >> we will keep an eye, thank you. last weekend, annual rite of artistic passage for many in the bay area took place, burning man festival. it started on a san francisco beach in 1986 and has since become the largest outdoor art festival in north america. one that has inspired and been inspired by bay area artists. every year, thousands of artists make the trek to nevada to display their work in one of the most extreme environments imaginable. for one week, five square miles of the black rock desert is transformed into a more than 300-piece exhibition of radical self-expression. >> it is like the greatest museum ever. you have your piece there, you don't see any other pieces around it, you see this vastness of the desert. being able to see the change in scale from something from a distance, being able to get up to it and climb on top of it and actually touch it, is amazing. >> burning man culture is its noncommercial nature. nothing's for sale. it's purely art for art's sake. many the most awe-inspiring pieces are temporal flights of fancy. structures that require months of pain staking and carefully planned design, most of which happens in the place where burning man got its start, the san francisco bay area. >> there is definitely a community of artists that i'm not sure would exist, at least not in this form, without barning man. it's become a mecca for people to come here and be part of this scene. >> a prime example, the box shop artist collective in san francisco. a hub of creative innovation year round. >> tell me what we're looking at here. >> this is all steel. it's disassembled at the moment. all these people stick together on the structure. >> its main tenants ar female-driven group who collaborate on sculptures for burning man. >> it's a group of 200 individuals and we make art together. we teach people, particularly women, how to do all parts of the art-making process through this one big group sculpture. if you can get into it, you can never leave. it's addictive. >> part of that addiction, a decade-long fascination with fire and designs that push the limits of interactive mechanical art. >> one thing that we believe in is making immersive environments. you actually walk into and become part of the art. >> this year they're crafting one of their most ambitious pieces yet, a giant tree stump with enormous mushrooms that spout fire and sound effects. while programmers work on the wiring and triggers for those mushrooms, sue is finishing up casings for sensitive electro c electronics. >> this will be a controller for our large fire mushrooms. so the audience can push a button and make the fire poof. >> it takes hundreds of hours of volunteer labor to bring such intricate design alive. the people who donate their time come from every walk of life. jack jackie flew from london. >> we are making box. you bend it, cut it like this. then you smack it with a hammer. it's not massively dangerous. >> good to know that it's not massively dangerous. >> jackie's what the group affectionately calls a minion, ready to take onfy task that's needed. >> you know what, two down, 100,000 more to go. >> one week later, it debuts at burning man. >> you kind of have an idea what it's going to look like but it always turns out different. it's really the road there and creating something a lot of other people are going to enjoy. >> like the burning man himself, much of the art here goes up in smoke at the end of the week. but over the past decade, the influence of burning man has spread. as an increasing number of the sculptures are finding new homes in urban settings. as executive director of the black rock arts foundation, mccabe helps fund community-based art projects. all with the burning man aesthetic like futures past. >> futures past is obviously like a mayan temple. this is all modeled after actual circuit boards and circuitry. >> the foundation's first project was a david best temple in hayes valley. >> we set up the temple and people started writing on it. in the beginning police would stop people from vandalizing. we had to like actually incultureate police and local residents, that's what it's for. >> the black arts foundation has been building on the success. over the past eight years it supported more than 30 civic arts project in the bay area and beyond. one of the best-known is bliss dance on treasure island. >> there's an iphone app where you have a photo of the sculpture on your phone. slide your finger up and down the sculpture and the lights will change according to which colors you select. marco cochran has been working for years with life have size bronzes and he's taken this classical form to a whole other level of scale and technology. >> art that needs viewer participation to come alive is taken to the extreme with peter hudson's art. it requires passers-by to pound on drums to make the piece spin. in 2008 it landed next to a children's museum in san jose. palo alto will soon be home to yeah aurora," a piece shown at multiple festivals across the country and is ready to install outside city hall. >> this will have technology that the city can use to change lights according to energy usage or the weather or whatever the city wants to do. >> the black arts foundation is not the sole champion of burning man artists. >> i think the biggest example of burning man art really making it into the mainstream is "day lights." he took a bridge nearly two miles long and created an entire l.e.d. art piece on that bridge. >> the installation was privately financed to the tune of $8 million. donors included yahoo! ceo marisa mayer among a new crop of patrons of technology-based interactive art. pending approval by the city the san francisco waterfront will boast another burning man creation, this one courtesy of the flaming lotus girs. >> we've been very successful in this cycle, make the piece for burning man, break it at burning man, bring it back and work on it and make it perfect. but definitely burning man for flaming lotus girls is where we were born. so that is a special place for us. >> cool stuff. our arts focus continues next week. join us for our fall arts preview with the kqed radio program. i want to thank you for being here tonight. next week will be the final broadcast of "this week in northern california." and the conclusion of our 24th season. visit kqed.org for a new program i'll be hosting. we close with the footage of the newly opened eastern span of the bay bridge. enjoy and good night. >> major funding for arts programming on "this week in northern california" is provided by diane b. willsy. additional funding cometh from the george frederick juitt foundation, the obama administration goes on a media blitz to convince a skeptical public to support military action in syria. in our signature segment, broadway's most celebrated living composer and lyricist, stephen sondheim. >> i can't imagine anybody approaching every single new project without doubt. in fact, i fink if you do it is probably not going to turn out that well. >> and, from bogota columbia to columbia south carolina, caring for the homeless next, on pbs newshour weekend made possible by judy and josh westin, the wallace family. the