University of California, Berkeley
Motto:	Fiat Lux (Latin, Let There Be Light)
Established	March 23, 1868
Type:	Public
Endowment:	US $2.41 billionUniversity of California Annual Endowment Report, Office of the Treasurer of The Regents, 2006 June 30, <http://www.ucop.edu/treasurer/foundation/foundation.pdf>. Retrieved on 2008 March 2
Chancellor:	Robert J. Birgeneau
Faculty:	1,950
Undergraduates:	23,482
Postgraduates:	10,076
Location:	Berkeley, California, U.S.
Campus:	Urban, 6,651 acres (27 km²)http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/finreports/index.php?file=/06-07/pdf/campusfacts2007.pdf
Newspaper:	The Daily Californian
Colors:	Yale Blue and Golden YellowFaculty Guide to Campus Life. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved on 2008-1-31.
Mascot:	Oski
Athletics:	NCAA Division I California Golden Bears
Affiliations:	University of California, Pacific-10, IARU, AAU
Website:	berkeley.edu

Sather tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais.

The University of California, Berkeley is a major research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. Informally referred to by such abbreviations as Cal, California, UC Berkeley, and simply Berkeley, it is the oldest of the ten campuses affiliated with the University of California. Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. The university occupies 6,651 acres (27 km²)http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/finreports/index.php?file=/06-07/pdf/campusfacts2007.pdf with the central campus resting on approximately 200 acres (0.8 km²).

The University was founded in 1868 in a merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College. By the 1930s, Berkeley had established itself as a premier research university, and today counts sixty-one Nobel Laureates among its faculty, researchers and alumni. Berkeley physicists led and hand-picked the team of scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb during World War II and the hydrogen bomb soon afterwards. The University has managed Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the nation\'s two principal nuclear weapons labs (now also used for more peaceful research) at Livermore, California, and Los Alamos, New Mexico, ever since.

Among their many achievements, Berkeley scientists invented the cyclotron, discovered the antiproton, played a key role in developing the laser, explained the processes underlying photosynthesis, isolated the polio virus, designed experiments that confirmed Bell\'s theorem, created the widely used BSD Unix computer operating system, and discovered numerous transuranic elements on the Periodic Table, including seaborgium, plutonium, berkelium, lawrencium and californium. Berkeley\'s faculty also continue to sustain a distinguished record in fields outside the physical sciences: they have received three Fields Medals in mathematicshttp://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/1998/0826/whiz.html as well as four Nobel Prizes in economics, one Nobel Prize in literature, three Pulitzer Prizes, 28 MacArthur Fellowships, 92 Sloan Fellowships, 384 Guggenheim Fellowships, seven Wolf Prizes, and nine James S. McDonnell Foundation awards.

Berkeley student-athletes compete intercollegiately as the California Golden Bears. A member of both the Pacific-10 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in the NCAA, Cal students have won national titles in many sports, including football, men\'s basketball, baseball, softball, water polo, rugby and crew. In addition, they have won over 100 Olympic medals. The official colors of the university and its athletic teams are Yale blue and California gold.

UC Berkeley campus circa 1940

History

Founding

In 1866, the land that comprises the current Berkeley campus was purchased by the private College of California. Because it lacked sufficient funds to operate, it eventually merged with the state-run Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College to form the University of California. The university\'s charter was signed by California Governor Henry H. Haight on March 23, 1868. Professor John Le Conte was appointed interim president, serving until 1870 when the Board of regents elected Henry Durant, the founder of the College of California.

The university opened in September of 1869 using the former College of California\'s buildings in Oakland as a temporary home while the new campus underwent construction.http://www.berkeley.edu/about/history/ In 1871, the Board of Regents stated that women should be admitted on an equal basis with men. Douglass, J.A. The Conditions for Admission. 2007. pg 21. http://books.google.com/books?id=hWbr2DJDq30C&printsec=frontcover With the completion of North and South Halls in 1873, the university relocated to its Berkeley location with 167 male and 222 female students.http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/campuses/ucb/overview.html

Early development

The University came of age under the direction of Benjamin Ide Wheeler, who was University President from 1899 to 1919. Its reputation grew as President Wheeler succeeded in attracting renowned faculty to the campus and procuring research and scholarship funds.http://www.berkeley.edu/about/history/ The campus began to take on the look of a contemporary university with Beaux-Arts and neoclassical buildings, including California Memorial Stadium (1923) designed by architect John Galen Howard;http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CalHistory/brief-history.2.html these buildings form the core of UC Berkeley\'s present campus architecture.

Robert Gordon Sproul assumed the presidency in 1930 and during his tenure of 28 years, UC Berkeley gained international recognition as a major research university. Prior to taking office, Sproul took a six month tour of other universities and colleges to study their educational and administrative methods and to establish connections through which he could draw talented faculty in the future.http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/overview/presidents/index2.html#sproul The Great Depression and World War II led to funding cutbacks, but Sproul was able to maintain academic and research standards by campaigning for private funds. By 1942, the American Council on Education ranked UC Berkeley second only to Harvard University in the number of distinguished departments.http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/overview/presidents/index2.html#sproul

World War II

During World War II, Ernest Orlando Lawrence\'s Radiation Laboratory in the hills above Berkeley began to contract with the U.S. Army to develop the atomic bomb, which would involve Berkeley\'s cutting-edge research in nuclear physics, including Glenn Seaborg\'s then-secret discovery of plutonium (Room 307 of Gilman Hall, where Seaborg discovered plutonium, would later be a National Historic Landmark). UC Berkeley physics professor J. Robert Oppenheimer was named scientific head of the Manhattan Project in 1942.http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/mp/chronology.shtmlhttp://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/HISTORY/H-06c11.htm Along with the descendant of the Radiation Lab, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California originally managed and is now a partner in managing two other labs of similar age, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which were established in 1943 and 1952, respectively.

1950s and 1960s political influences

During the McCarthy era in 1949, the Board of Regents adopted an anti-communist loyalty oath to be signed by all University of California employees. A number of faculty members objected to the oath requirement and were dismissed;http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/archives_exhibits/loyaltyoath/timelinesummary.html ten years passed before they were reinstated with back pay.http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=535 One of them, Edward C. Tolman—the noted comparative psychologist— has a building on campus named after him housing the departments of psychology and education. An oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic" is still required of all UC employees.http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_20http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=542

In 1952, the University of California became an entity separate from the Berkeley campus as part of a major restructuring of the UC system. Each campus was given relative autonomy and its own Chancellor. Sproul assumed the presidency of the entire University of California system, and Clark Kerr became the first Chancellor of UC Berkeley.http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CalHistory/brief-history.2.html

1960s and the Free Speech Movement

Memorial Glade, at the center of the Berkeley campus.

UC Berkeley’s reputation for student activism was forged in the 1960s, beginning with the Free Speech Movement in 1964.http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CalHistory/60s.html An impromptu response to the university’s ban on campus political activity, the Free Speech Movement led to the formal establishment of students’ freedom of expression. Student protests continued through the Vietnam War era in the 1960s, as campuses across the nation spoke out against American involvement in the war.

Perhaps the most publicized event in Berkeley was the People\'s Park protest in 1969, which was a conflict between the university and a number of Berkeley students and city residents over a plot of land on which the university intended to construct athletic fields. A grassroots effort by students and residents turned it into a community park, but after a few weeks, the university decided to reclaim control over the property. Law enforcement was sent in and the park was bulldozed, setting off a protest. California governor Ronald Reagan — who had said in his gubernatorial election campaign that he would clean up the perceived unruliness at Berkeley and other university campuses — called in National Guard troops and more violence erupted, resulting in over a dozen people hospitalized, a police officer stabbed, a bystander blinded, and the death of one student."Berkeley in the 60s", Bancroft Library web exhibit. Ironically, People\'s Park remained an empty lot long after, and was eventually used by the university for other purposes. Online at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CalHistory/60s.html; Jeffery Kahn, "Ronald Reagan launched political career using the Berkeley campus as a target", UC Berkeley News (8 June 2004). Available online at http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/06/08_reagan.shtml. The university ultimately decided not to develop People’s Park, though it remains the owner of the property.

Present day

Today, students at UC Berkeley are generally considered to be less politically active than their predecessors.Doty, Meriah (February 5, 2004), "Examining Berkeley\'s liberal legacy", CNN, <http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/09/elec04.berkeley/>. Retrieved on 20 February 2008 In a poll conducted in 2005, 51% of Berkeley freshmen considered themselves liberal, 37% considered themselves moderate, and 12% identified as conservative. 43.8% have no religious preference compared to a national average of 17.6%. In 1982, 20.8% identified as conservative, 32.9% identified as liberals, and 46.4% identified as moderate.Powell, Bonnie Azab (January 24, 2005). Web Feature. UC Berkeley News. Retrieved on 2008-02-29. Although Republicans are in the minority, the Berkeley College Republicans is the largest student organization on campus.Ilves, Luukas (November 10, 2006). Stanford Republicans Revived. The Stanford Review. Retrieved on 2008-02-29. Democrats outnumber Republicans on the faculty by a ratio of nine to one, leading to some conservative student criticism of the faculty for teaching with a liberal bias.Tierney, John (November 18, 2004), "Republicans Outnumbered in Academia, Studies Find", New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/education/18faculty.html>. Retrieved on 16 January 2008

Tightwad Hill

Although considered a liberal institution by some, various human and animal rights groups have protested the research conducted at Berkeley. Native American groups contend that the university\'s dismantling of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology\'s repatriation unit demonstrates unwillingness to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, while Berkeley officials say the museum\'s reorganization complies with the law and will involve all museum staff in the repatriation process.Paddock, Richard (January 12, 2008), "UC Berkeley\'s bones of contention", Los Angeles Times, <http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-adme-bones13jan13,0,2942194.story?coll=la-home-local>. Retrieved on 13 January 2008 Animal-rights activists have taken to committing various acts of vandalism and intimidation against faculty members whose research involves the use of animals.Krupnik, Matt (January 11, 2008), "Animal rights activists protest at Cal", The Daily Argus, <http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_7941998>. Retrieved on 13 January 2008 Additionally, the university\'s response to a group of tree sitters protesting the construction of a new athletic center has galvanized some members of the local community, including the city council, against the university.McKinley, Jesse (September 7, 2007), "University Fences In a Berkeley Protest, and a New One Arises", New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/education/13trees.html>. Retrieved on 11 January 2008 Plans to renovate Memorial Stadium in a way that would eliminate a view of the field from the surrounding hills also have encountered opposition from alumni and others who have regularly watched Cal football games for free. McKinley, Jesse (December 4, 2006), "Fighting to Save the Really Cheap Seats", New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/sports/ncaafootball/04tightwad.html>. Retrieved on 25 February 2008

As state funding for higher education declines, Berkeley has increasingly turned to private sources to maintain basic research programs. In 2007, the oil giant BP donated $500 million to Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to establish a joint research laboratory to develop biofuels, the Hewlett Foundation gave $113 million to endow 100 faculty chairs, and Dow Chemical gave $10 million for a research program in sustainability to be overseen by a Dow executive.Paddock, Richard C.. "Less to bank on at state universities", The Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-06. Schevitz, Tanya. "Cal given $10 million by Dow Chemical to work on sustainability", The San Francisco Chronicle, October 31, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-31. 

British Petroleum / BP Deal

The $500 million ten-year contract between UC Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and BP (formerly British Petroleum), one of the world’s largest energy production companies, officially went into effect Wednesday November 14, 2007.Brenneman, Richard. "UC Signs BP Contract", Berkeley Daily Planet, November 13, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.  The grant is the largest in the University’s history. The deal has garnered criticism from some students and faculty who claim the agreement was negotiated in secret, and that it threatens Berkeley’s reputation as an autonomous and democratic institution of higher learning.Brenneman, Richard. "UC Academic Senate Confirms BP Contract", Berkeley Daily Planet, April 20, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.  Supporters of the deal, on the other hand, assert that the infusion of capital from the venture will benefit the campus as a whole at a time when public universities are dealing with increasing cuts in State and Federal funding. They also point out that the BP deal focuses on developing alternative energy, an important issue in today\'s world.Burress, Charles. "UC Berkeley, BP finally sign contract for research project", November 15, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-14. 

Nuclear physicist and BP Chief Scientist Steve Koonin began the process that led to BP’s selection of Berkeley as a co-recipient of the grant.Brenneman, Richard. "UC Signs BP Contract", Berkeley Daily Planet, November 13, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.  Berkeley faculty and graduate students will aid BP scientists in designing and implementing genetically modified plants and microbes which can be used in the Bio-fuel industry. The deal is controversial among some UC Berkeley faculty, with some professors including Ignacio Chapela and Miguel Altieri who claim that the project will displace farmland needed for food crops in poor nations and replace them with patented crops owned by multinational corporations, and others including Randy Schekman speaking out in support of the deal.Partial recording of UC Berkeley academic senate deliberation on proposed BP deal (April 24, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-1-24.

In March of 2007 the UC Regents, who signed the deal, voted to build a new research facility to house the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), BP’s chosen name for the project. University officials describe it as “the first public-private institution of this scale in the world.” Brenneman, Richard. "UC Signs BP Contract", Berkeley Daily Planet, November 13, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-15. UCBerkeleyNews (November 14 2007). "Energy Biosciences Institute contract signed". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-11-14.

Campus

View of the Berkeley Campus from the Big C on the foothills to the east

UC Berkeley encompasses approximately 1,232 acres (5 km²), though the main campus occupies only the low-lying western 178 acres (0.7 km²). Of the 1000 acres (4 km²) or so uphill area, approximately 200 acres (0.8 km²) are occupied by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; other facilities above the main campus include the Lawrence Hall of Science and several research units, notably the Space Sciences Laboratory, and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, while the remaining undeveloped 800 acres (3.2 km²) are an ecological preserve with additional land devoted to the University of California Botanical Garden and a recreation center in Strawberry Canyon . Bordering it to the west is the downtown business district of Berkeley; to the northwest is the neighborhood of North Berkeley, including the so-called Gourmet Ghetto, a commercial district known for high quality dining due to the presence of such world-renowned restaurants as Chez Panisse. Immediately to the north is a quiet residential neighborhood known as Northside with a large graduate student population^{[citation needed]}; situated north of that are the upscale residential neighborhoods of the Berkeley Hills, where many faculty members live^{[citation needed]}. Immediately southeast of campus lies fraternity row, and beyond that the Clark Kerr Campus and an upscale residential area named Claremont. The area south of the university includes student housing and Telegraph Avenue, one of Berkeley\'s main shopping districts with stores, street vendors and restaurants catering to college students and tourists.

Architecture

Main article: University of California, Berkeley Campus Architecture

South Hall (1873), one of the two original buildings of the University of California, still stands on the Berkeley campus

What is considered the historic campus today was the result of the 1898 "International Competition for the Phoebe Hearst Architectural Plan for the University of California," funded by William Randolph Hearst’s mother and initially held in the Belgian city of Antwerp; eleven finalists were judged again in San Francisco in 1899.Online Exhibit on the Hearst Architectural Competition The winner was Frenchman Emile Bernard, however he refused to personally supervise the implementation of his plan and the task was subsequently given to architecture professor John Galen Howard. Howard designed over twenty buildings, which set the tone for the campus up until its expansion in the 1950s and 1960s. The structures forming the “classical core” of the campus were built in the Beaux-Arts Classical style, and include Hearst Greek Theatre, Hearst Memorial Mining Building, Doe Memorial Library, California Hall, Wheeler Hall, (Old) Le Conte Hall, Gilman Hall, Haviland Hall, Wellman Hall, Sather Gate, and the 307-foot (94 m) Sather Tower (nicknamed "the Campanile" after its architectural inspiration, St Mark\'s Campanile in Venice). Buildings he regarded as temporary, nonacademic, or not particularly "serious" were designed in shingle or Collegiate Gothic styles; examples of these are North Gate Hall, Dwinelle Annex, and Stephens Hall. Many of Howard’s designs are recognized California Historical Landmarks and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Built in 1873 in a Victorian Second-Empire-style, South Hall is the oldest university building in California. It, and the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Piedmont Avenue east of the main campus, are the only remnants from the original University of California before John Galen Howard\'s buildings were constructed. Other architects whose work can be found in the campus and surrounding area are Bernard MaybeckMcCoy, Esther (1960). Five California Architects. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 6. ASIN B000I3Z52W.  (best known for the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco), Maybeck\'s student Julia Morgan (Hearst Women\'s Gymnasium), Charles Willard Moore (Haas School of Business) and Joseph Esherick (Wurster Hall).

Natural features

Strawberry Creek, as seen between Dwinelle Hall and Lower Sproul Plaza.

Flowing into the main campus are two branches of Strawberry Creek. The south fork enters a culvert upstream of the recreational complex at the mouth of Strawberry Canyon and passes beneath California Memorial Stadium before appearing again in Faculty Glade. It then runs through the center of the campus before disappearing underground at the west end of campus. The north fork appears just east of University House and runs through the glade north of the Valley Life Sciences Building, the original site of the Campus Arboretum.

Trees in the area date from the founding of the University in the 1870s. The campus, itself, contains numerous wooded areas; including: Founders\' Rock, Faculty Glade, Grinnell Natural Area, and the Eucalyptus Grove, which is both the tallest stand of such trees in the world and the tallest stand of hardwood trees in North America.http://strawberrycreek.berkeley.edu/tour/08eucalyptus.html

Organization

Chancellors

The position of Chancellor was created in 1952 during the reorganization and expansion of the University of California; there have since been nine inaugurated chancellors (one was acting chancellor):

Colleges and schools

Haas School of Business

Berkeley\'s 130-plus academic departments and programs are organized into 14 unique colleges and schools. "Colleges" are both undergraduate and graduate, while "Schools" are generally graduate only, though some offer undergraduate majors, minors, or courses.

Academic Centers

• Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Ambassador Farid Abboud and Ambassador Barbara

Bodine visit BerkeleyAmbassador Farid Abboud and Ambassador Barbara Bodine visit Berkeley. Retrieved on 2007-08-13.

Labor unions representing UC Berkeley employees

• UPTE University Professional and Technical Employees — health care, technical and research workers
• CUE Coalition of University Employees — clericals
• UC-AFT University Council-American Federation of Teachers — lecturers and librarians
• UAW United Auto Workers — Academic student employees
• AFSCME American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — service workers and patient care technical employees
• CNA California Nurses Association — Nurses

Academics

Berkeley has had 20 Nobel Laureates on its faculty and 61 affiliated with the university

Berkeley is a comprehensive university, offering over 7,000 courses in nearly 300 degree programs. The university awards over 5,500 bachelor\'s degrees, 2,000 master\'s degrees, 900 doctorates, and 200 law degrees each year. The student-faculty ratio is 15.5 to 1, among the lowest of any major university, and the average class consists of 30 students (not including discussion sections led by graduate student instructors). Class size ranges from introductory courses with hundreds of students and seminars with fewer than ten.

Berkeley\'s current faculty includes 221 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows, 2 Fields Medal winners, 83 Fulbright Scholars, 139 Guggenheim Fellows, 87 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 132 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 8 Nobel Prize winners, 3 Pulitzer Prize winners, 84 Sloan Fellows, and 7 Wolf Prize winners.About UC Berkeley: Honors and Awards 61 Nobel Laureates are associated with the university, the sixth most of any university in the world; twenty have served on its faculty. (See list of distinguished Berkeley faculty.)

Berkeley\'s enrollment of National Merit Scholars was third in the nation until 2002, when participation in the National Merit program was discontinued.http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/7323

Berkeley awards the following degreesUndergraduate Majors and Degrees. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.Graduate Degrees and Certificates. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.: B.A., B.S., M.A., M.S., M.F.A., M.B.A., M.F.E., M.C.P., M.Arch., M.Eng., M.F., M.I.M.S., M.J., M.L.A., M.P.H., M.P.P., M.S.W., M.U.D., LL.M., Ph.D., D.Eng., Ed.D., D.O., Dr.P.H., J.D., J.S.D.

Campus Enrollment

The undergraduate student population as of 2006 was 46% Asian, 29% white, 11% Hispanic, 4% Black and 10% unknown.Timothy, Egan (January 7, 2007), "Little Asia on the Hill", New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/education/edlife/07asian.html>. Retrieved on 16 January 2008

Rankings

Sather gate and Sather tower (the Campanile) from Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus

According to the National Research Council, Berkeley ranks first nationally in the number of graduate programs in the top ten in their fields (97%, 35 of 36 programs) and first nationally in the number of "distinguished" programs for the scholarship of the faculty (32 programs).UC Berkeley Honors & Awards: Graduate Program Rankings Berkeley is the only university in the nation to achieve top 5 rankings for all of its PhD programs in those disciplines covered by the US News and World Report graduate school survey. In a survey of "Top American Research Universities" released by The Center for Measuring University Performance at Arizona State University, Berkeley ranked eighth overall and first among public institutions.The Center for Measuring University Performance at Arizona State University

In addition to its distinguished post-graduate programs, US News also consistently ranks Berkeley as the nation’s top undergraduate public university and within the top three overall for both Undergraduate Business and Undergraduate Engineering. U.S. News & World Report recently ranked Berkeley\'s undergraduate program twenty-first nationally in terms of "academic excellence." In its 2007 annual college rankings, The Washington Monthly ranks Berkeley third nationally with criteria based on research, community service, and social mobility."National Universities", The Washington Monthly, August 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-21.