Chancellor's Summer Letter
July 1999
Dear Friend:
Today, poised as we are on the threshold of a new century, Berkeley finds itself in an extraordinary position. Over the course of the past year--a year in which we have celebrated exceptional accomplishment and have been tested by difficult and complex challenges--it has become clear to me that this remarkable public university has never been of greater value. I also believe that the demands placed upon us have never been greater and that there is little room for alibi or inaction in addressing them.
It is my pleasure as I come to the close of my second year at Berkeley to report to you on the year that has passed and to identify the priorities guiding us forward.
Setting the Course for the New Century
Last month I addressed the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., presenting my thoughts on the tensions and challenges that I believe will shape the public university in the 21st century. The issues are complex, to be sure. But at their most basic, I believe these are the challenges we face:
- First are the issues of access and opportunity. We must assure that we give the best educational opportunity to all children, from kindergarten through graduate school.
- Second, our research must address needs of public interest, from problems of decaying cities to the promise of new science and technology to issues of human understanding. The land-grant model of public universities should be employed in the service of urban America.
- Third, we must continue to lead the information revolution, integrating its benefits into all levels of education to strengthen learning.
- And finally, faced with the increasing commercialization of higher education in America, we must assure that public universities continue to fulfill their public trust by educating individuals for citizenship and leadership, ensuring that they comprehend the ethical dimensions of human life.
These challenges serve as our core priorities for the future. At Berkeley to serve our public mission we must ensure we sustain the pre-eminence of our faculty and support the extraordinary work they do as we educate the very best students of each generation. This is why we must improve the usefulness of our aging laboratories, upgrade our classrooms, and address the very real issue of seismic vulnerability. It is why superior operational effectiveness is so important and it is why we must take steps to ensure that this campus is a human place--a caring and responsive environment for all who work and learn here.
Advancing Research and Teaching
Today, the most fundamental research cuts across many fields and Berkeley's great depth and breadth--from the sciences to the humanities--places us in a unique position to lead in the creation of knowledge and address the needs of public interest. Our excellence in the fields of chemistry, physics, neuroscience, and bioengineering, for example, provides us an enviable platform from which to launch far-reaching initiatives in the health sciences. In the humanities, boundary-crossing research was the very focus of a first-of-its-kind meeting among scholars from Berkeley and Europe at the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities this spring.
This was a banner year for research funding. The Office of Sponsored Projects reports $421 million in grants and contracts, a 15 percent increase over last year. A $4.5 million grant will allow the School of Public Health to head into California communities to seek out environmental factors linked to childhood leukemia. A $25 million research collaboration with Novartis, Inc. represents a first-of-its-kind arrangement for us with a private firm. It will provide valuable resources to help Berkeley scientists and California farmers remain at the forefront of agricultural biotechnology. However, we also recognize that it demands that we, as a public university, deal with this new opportunity carefully and intelligently to ensure that the research fully serves the public interest.
Berkeley inventions reported to our Office of Technology Licensing topped the 100 mark for the first time this year. Twenty-nine new companies have been launched by Berkeley inventions over the past five years and are now helping to fuel the economy.
To enhance the undergraduate experience, we established a Commission on Undergraduate Education and in the fall we will focus on three key areas: student advising, how the curriculum can integrate the intellectual experience, and increasing opportunities for academic enrichment. We inaugurated the Berkeley Consortium for the Arts to bring the arts more fully into general education and give students opportunities to work closely with visiting artists and performers. And, students across campus are benefiting from the wiring of Internet connections into every general assignment classroom.
Once again our faculty members were widely recognized for superb accomplishment. Professor Bruce Ames was awarded the National Medal of Science for his lifelong work in the prevention of cancer and other degenerative diseases of aging. Ten percent of the new members of the National Academy of Sciences came from Berkeley. And our faculty exhibited its "genius" with the most MacArthur Foundation awards of any university in the country. The three awards span disciplines from chemistry to the classics.
New Leadership and a Farewell
To help address our major priorities we have brought in exceptional talent. Joining us last fall from Kaiser Permanente, Vice Chancellor Edward Denton has quickly and professionally put our capital program on track and made swift headway on our seismic retrofitting. Long-time English professor Donald McQuade took the helm of University Relations as vice chancellor in January, and is leading our record-breaking fundraising and public affairs efforts.
Professor David K. Leonard is the new dean of International and Area Studies while his colleague in the Political Science Department, Professor George Breslauer, takes over the deanship of the Social Sciences. Garry Brewer, an internationally known scholar and environmentalist, joined us from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as dean of University Extension. Gerald Lowell joins us from UCSD as our new university librarian and has begun the vital task of rebuilding with determination and vision. We are delighted that Professor Janet Yellen will be returning to Berkeley when she steps down as chair of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors.
Sadly, amidst the news of new arrivals we said farewell to a number of revered members of the Cal family. Perhaps most noteworthy is the passing of Glenn Seaborg. We shall miss him for a very long time to come.
Securing Opportunity for a New California
Admission to Berkeley for fall '99 remained extremely competitive with the result that an exceedingly impressive group of young scholars will comprise our entering class. After the most intensive recruiting and outreach effort in our history, our incoming class represents all segments of our state. These future leaders come from 48 of California's 58 counties; from urban, suburban, and rural high schools; and from a wide range of family incomes and ethnic backgrounds.
Berkeley remains enormously successful in providing opportunity for upward mobility. One powerful illustration of this is that 44 percent of our new freshmen and transfer students last fall shared one or more of the following attributes: They were immigrants, neither of their parents had a four-year college degree, and their parents had an annual income of under $30,000.
We took seriously our responsibility to assist in giving the best educational opportunity to all stu dents by reaching out to students in urban K-12 schools. The Berkeley Pledge, for example, now assists in more than 50 Bay Area schools, prompting U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley to praise the Pledge as a national model for university and K-12 partnerships.
Facing Up to the Challenge of Change
Our aging infrastructure and seismic vulnerability continue to present a major challenge. Working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency we were awarded $42 million to seismically retrofit four major academic buildings and we have received the required state funding match. The enormity of the campuswide situation will demand substantial public and private investment for years to come. In addition to our responsibility for life safety, securing funding to bring our laboratories up to modern standards is a must if we are to continue to carry out leading research that supports the economy and enhances the welfare of the people of California.
This year marked the 30th anniversary of history-making political protests at Berkeley, prompting students who perceived a decline in our commitment to the Ethnic Studies Department to stage a hunger strike and protest. It ended as it should have begun, by talking until deep-seated misunderstandings were overcome and assurances for a strong department were clarified. And for the first time in our history, Graduate Student Instructors at Berkeley and across the UC system voted to be exclusively represented by a union, an affiliate of the United Auto Workers.
Building for the Future and Housing Students Now
In September, we will be holding a gala celebration for the opening of the towering Haas Pavilion. Nearby, renovation of Edwards Stadium for track and soccer is nearly complete. The new all-weather track will not sport a typical red surface, however--bright gold with blue lane lines was clearly a superior choice. Our long-range seismic safety program, SAFER, is moving ahead. Among work completed was the third phase of Doe Library and McCone Hall. We are also well along in developing our Strategic Facilities Master Plan.
One concern for the fall is student housing. We will reconfigure some two-bed rooms to triples and are working with nearby co-ops and local developers as well as with Mills, Merritt, and Holy Names colleges to secure spaces. Planning is beginning for 500 new beds, but it takes at least three years from planning to occupancy. One bright note is the replacement of the World War II family housing at University Village in Albany. The first 186 units will be ready for the fall.
Surpassing the Billion-Dollar Milestone
Cal is setting the standard for fundraising in higher education with our Campaign for the New Century. In April, we crossed the $1 billion milestone. We are well on the way to surpassing our fundraising record for a single year. And, with 18 months remaining in the capital drive we expect to exceed our $1.1-billion goal. This will bring us closer to breaking the record for university fundraising on the West Coast, currently held by Stanford at $1.269 billion.
The emphasis on attracting, supporting, and retaining the very best faculty and students has been an especially heartening aspect of our campaign. Thus far it has created 21 distinguished professorships, 46 faculty chairs, 120 graduate fellowships, and 243 undergraduate scholarships.
We could not have accomplished this without the overwhelming participation of alumni and friends. The $1 billion raised so far represents gifts from 72,558 donors, and the share of alumni who give to Cal has increased by more than 50 percent over what we have known in the past.
Spring Brings National Championships
Our student athletes had a spectacular spring, bringing Cal national championships in five sports. With its down-to-the wire victory in the National Invitational Tournament, our men's basketball team brought home its first national post-season crown in 40 years. The men's rugby team increased its string of national titles to nine, and the men's varsity and JV crew teams each won national titles. Spring also brought stellar individual efforts, with national titles in men's and women's swimming, and women's tennis doubles.
A Final Word
Last September, Peg and I moved into University House after its exquisite renovation and restoration. We have enjoyed the capability it provides for us to meet with and entertain large numbers of alumni, friends, faculty, students, and staff. Living on campus and participating fully in the life of this beautiful place has given us a real sense of the remarkable strength of the Cal family and made me deeply appreciate the singular privilege it is to serve as chancellor of this great public university.
Sincerely,
Robert M. Berdahl
Chancellor