Campaign Close Celebration

Campaign Close Celebration
Zellerbach Auditorium
April 21, 2001

Campaign Close Celebration

By Robert M. Berdahl
Chancellor
University of California, Berkeley

 Good evening! And welcome to this gala celebration - and do we have reason to celebrate! - marking the enormously successful conclusion of the Campaign for the New Century: The Promise of Berkeley.

In some of the darkest days in the life of this great University, in the wake of reductions of state support that exceeded even those of the Great Depression, Berkeley produced a leader who had the vision to see beyond the darkness to the light that lay beyond. I refer, of course, to Chang-Lin Tien, a man of remarkable vision, energy, courage, and optimism. This campaign was his vision. And tonight it is fitting that we dedicate this celebration to him.

One of Chang-Lin's favorite projects in the campaign, reflecting his own roots, is the East Asian Library and Studies Center, a project whose funding is not yet completed. The East Asian Library and Studies Center will house both our outstanding faculty in East Asian studies and languages and our remarkable library collections in the field in one facility to be located opposite the Doe Library on Memorial Glade.

It is with great pleasure tonight that I announce that the East Asian Library and Studies Center will be named in honor of Chang-Lin Tien, as a tribute to his enduring presence on this campus.

Chancellor Tien could not be here tonight, but his wife Di-Hwa has kindly joined us and will bring his message to us. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in giving a warm welcome to Di-Hwa.

[DI-HWA SPEAKS]

Sixteen semesters . . . thirty-two changes of the seasons . . . three thousand days . . . hundreds of thousands of friends . . . millions of hours of hard work . . . and, yes, gallons of wine drunk and thousands of calories consumed at fundraising dinners and receptions . . . and, above all, five-hundred thousand individual gifts . . . it all adds up to a promise kept, a rendezvous with the twenty-first century, the largest capital campaign yet raised by a single campus of a public university in America.

One billion, four-hundred, forty-four thousand dollars!

You did it. You know the story. You tell the whole damn world this is Bear Territory!

Tonight, as we celebrate the realization of a dream, we know that behind every dream are dreamers, those who have the capacity to imagine something new and different, who have imagination themselves, but are capable of awakening the imagination of others and to invite them to partake of the dream.

The dreamers we celebrate tonight include all of you, but most especially, they include:

Chang-Lin Tien, who crafted the vision of the campaign.

Vice Chancellor Dan Mote, who recruited the staff, and built a team. Dan brought reality to the dream through thousands of miles of travel and hundreds of solicitations he carried the message of Cal's greatness.

Campaign Director John Cash, who planned the strategy and orchestrated the many component efforts of the campaign.

These architects of the campaign were joined by a team of volunteers who provided the heart and the soul of the campaign.

Peter Haas. I want to pause a moment to offer a special word of thanks to Peter Haas, for it was Peter, more than anyone, who secured the crucial lead gifts of the campaign and made certain that nearly half of the goal was reached in the quiet phase. Please join me in offering a special thanks and tribute to Peter Haas, whose life is inextricably linked to Cal and to whom Cal will be indebted through all of its history.

With Peter's leadership, the Campaign attracted a network of volunteers led by the UC Berkeley Foundation Board of Trustees and the Campaign Co-Chairs:

F. Warren Hellman

John Hotchkis

Carl Stoney, Jr.

Nadine Tang

Each gave time, energy, and financial support to guarantee the success of the campaign.

And finally, during these last two successful years of the campaign, Vice Chancellor Don McQuade provided the leadership that carried us through the home stretch to the $1.44 billion record we celebrate tonight.

Those of us who have dedicated our lives to universities, either because that is where we have chosen to live and work, or, as with most of you who have dedicated so much to Berkeley because of deep attachments extending over the years since you studied here - those so dedicated to universities have come to understand that universities, possess an enduring quality shared by few other institutions in our society. By enduring, I do not mean only that universities are among the oldest institutions we know; rather, I mean that they are enduring because they link together the elements of time - past, present, and future.

Within the hallowed walls of this University and on the meandering paths of the campus, we are constantly reminded of the way in which our present is linked to the past and to the future. Planning for the future of Berkeley in 1896, Phoebe Apperson Hearst wrote:

"I desire to say that the success of this enterprise shall not be hampered in any way by a money consideration. I have only one wish in this matter, that the plans adopted should be worthy of the great university whose material home they are to provide for; that they should harmonize with, and even enhance the beauty of the site whereon this home is to be built, and that they should redound to the glory of the State whose culture and civilization are to be nursed and developed at the university."

In 1910, Jane Sather wrote the following brief letter to President Wheeler:

"Dear Mr. Wheeler:

Do you intend a very expensive building for the Chime of the Bells and the clock? If I have sufficient funds for the purpose, I would like both building and bells to be at my expense. Please communicate with Warren Olney, Jr. on the subject and let me know as soon as practicable."

I can guarantee you that that letter rang Wheeler's bell. Such a letter is every president's or chancellor's dream: if you plan a very expensive building and I have sufficient funds, I would like it to be at my expense.

We are reminded of our link to Phoebe Apperson Hearst with every stroll across campus, and of our bond with Jane Sather with every ringing of the hour and concert of the carillon.

Generations from now, long after we, too, have passed from the scene, students will walk around Memorial Glade or sit by the reflecting pool and be aware of the gifts of the World War II classes. They will be taking classes in the Goldman School of Public Policy or watching basketball games in the Haas Pavilion, or doing research in the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, or reading materials in the Chang-Lin Tien East Asian Library, and they will be aware of their debt to the past, as we are now aware of both our debt to the past and our gift to the future.

We are all beneficiaries. We are all benefactors. We are all part of something larger, more important, more enduring than ourselves. But we are making a difference in someone's life, as someone has made a difference in ours.

Bernice Bertelsmann understood this. She attended Cal during the great depression. Soon after she arrived at Cal, her father lost his job, his health, and not long after, he died. She wrote, "That meant I had to work my way through college. Although it took me seven years, two of which I worked full time as a telephone operator at Hotel Claremont while taking only four units, they were the happiest years of my life, and I finally graduated in May 1936 with honors in what was then called Household Art.

"I have very fond and grateful memories of Dean [of Women Mary B.] Davidson, who encouraged and helped me so many times and was instrumental in obtaining small scholarships and a scholarship loan for me, which were godsends. Someday I should like to help some struggling student as I was helped."

Bernice Bertelsmann's bequest of $230,000, a gift, as she put it, "with no strings attached," is being used to fund undergraduate scholarships - support for students struggling with financial hardship.

Gifts great and small always enriched the possibilities for Berkeley. No gift has ever been too small to make a difference. We have it on record that in the early days people donated such things as snakes, human skulls, live bats, and old robes. The record shows, by the way, that Cal's athletic facilities in those days consisted of an open field and two old cannon balls. It didn't say what the sport was, but I suspect it may still be played on Sproul Plaza.

Berkeley has received millions of her most meaningful treasures over the years in the form of small gifts from people whose means may be modest but who have generous hearts. All gifts are relative to capacity and many have stretched to make a modest gift that has made a tremendous difference in someone's life.

A graduate of Chemistry made a $5,000 gift for an undergraduate scholarship. Last year, the scholarship was awarded to Michael Chin, Class of 2002. Because of the scholarship, Michael was able to spend the summer on campus doing research instead of doing an outside job. His family escaped from Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime and he is the first in his family to go to college.

A young alumna in New York gave $10,000 to the Health Sciences Initiative because she felt that research in health is so important and she felt that people her age should be making this kind of a commitment to what Cal can do.

A man from Newport with no connection to Cal gave $25,000 to Engineering because he thinks Cal Engineering is the greatest in the world.

We are all beneficiaries. We are all benefactors. We are all part of something larger, more important, more enduring than ourselves. We are making a difference in someone's life as some made a difference in ours.

Above all, tonight, as we celebrate the success of The Campaign for the New Century: The Promise of Berkeley, we are all keepers of a promise. We have kept the promise of Phoebe Hearst to help build a great university that redounds to "the glory of the State whose culture and civilization are to be nursed and developed" here. We have kept the promise of Chang-Lin Tien and Peter Haas, and all of the bright lights of our firmament, to pursue excellence, to be the best of all for the good of all.

But we still have promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep, and miles to go before we sleep.

Thank you.