History of the University of California, Berkeley
Encyclopedia
The history of the University of California, Berkeley
can be traced the establishment of the private College of California
and its merger with the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College to form the University of California
in 1868.
. 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 1869 using the former College of California's buildings in Oakland
as a temporary home while the new campus underwent construction. In 1871, the Board of Regents stated that women should be admitted on an equal basis with men. With the completion of North and South Halls
in 1873, the university relocated to its Berkeley location with 167 male and 222 female students. In 1874 the first Woman to graduate from the University of California was by the name of Rosa L. Scrivner with a Ph.B in Agriculture.
Starting in 1891, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, mother of William Randolph Hearst
, made several large gifts to Berkeley, endowing a number of programs, sponsoring an international architectural competition, and funding the construction of Hearst Memorial Mining Building and Hearst Hall. In 1899, the University came of age under the direction of Benjamin Ide Wheeler
, the University's President until 1919. In 1905, the "University Farm" of Berkeley was formed near Sacramento
, ultimately becoming UC Davis. UC Berkeley's reputation grew as President Wheeler succeeded in attracting renowned faculty to the campus and procuring research and scholarship funds. 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
; these buildings form the core of UC Berkeley's present campus architecture.
In the 1910s, Berkeley had a significant role in the Indian independence movement
, when Indian students studying at the university took an active part in forming the radical Ghadar Party
- especially in publishing its paper, The Hindustan Ghadar
, beyond the reach of the British colonial police in India.
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. 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.
Because the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College (a public institution formed in 1866) was created by the state legislature after it took advantage of the federal Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act
of 1862, the first male undergraduates at the new University of California were required to serve two hours per week for four years being trained in tactics, dismounted drill, marksmanship, camp duty, military engineering, and fortifications. In exchange for California's share of 150000 acres (60,702.9 ha), North Hall, which no longer exists, housed an armory. In 1904, the service requirement was dropped to two years, and in 1917, Cal's ROTC was established more or less as it exists today with ROTC programs for the four main branches of the military. The university president's report from 1902 states that "The University Cadets from last year numbered no less than 866. Appointments as second lieutenants in the regular army have been conferred upon several men who have distinguished themselves as officers in the University Cadets. It is very much to be hoped that the War Department will establish permanently the policy of offering such appointments to the graduates of each year who show the highest ability in military pursuits." Commander Chester W. Nimitz
established the Naval ROTC at Cal in the fall of 1926. Transferred in June 1929, Captain Nimitz left a unit of 150 midshipmen enrolled with a staff of six commissioned and six petty officers.
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. 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.
From 1943 to 1946, Berkeley was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program
which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
The military increased its presence on campus to churn out recruits from the officer training corps. The army program took over Bowles Hall
, a dormitory, and the naval program took over the International House, the Student Co-op
Barrington Hall
, and several fraternities for its trainees. By 1944, more than 1,000 navy personnel were studying at Cal, roughly one out of every four male Berkeley students. Former secretary of defense Robert McNamara
and former Army chief of staff Frederick C. Weyand
are both graduates of Cal's ROTC program. With the end of the war and the subsequent rise of student activism, the California Board of Regents succumbed to pressure from the student government and ended compulsory military training at Berkeley in 1962.
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; ten years passed before they were reinstated with back pay. 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.
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.
UC Berkeley’s reputation for student activism was forged in the 1960s, beginning with the Free Speech Movement
in 1964. 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. The university ultimately decided not to develop People’s Park, though it remains the owner of the property.
. 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. Although Republicans are in the minority, the Berkeley College Republicans is the largest political organization on campus. 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.
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. Animal-rights activists have taken to committing various acts of vandalism and intimidation against faculty members whose research involves the use of animals. 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. 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.
As of 2006, the 32,347-student university needed more capital investment just to maintain current infrastructure than any other campus in the UC system, but as its enrollment is at capacity, it often receives less state money for improvement projects than other, growing campuses in the system. 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 biofuel
s, 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.
between UC Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and BP
(formerly BP Amoco), one of the world’s largest energy production companies, officially went into effect Wednesday November 14, 2007 following approval by a majority of the faculty. 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. 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.
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. 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 patent
ed crops owned by multinational corporations, and others including Randy Schekman
speaking out in support of the deal.
In March 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."
, Cal Bears, or simply, Cal.
As a reflection of the University of California's development into a multi-institutional university system, the term University of California is no longer applied to the campus outside of varsity sports; the official name is University of California, Berkeley. Informally, the campus is called UC Berkeley, Berkeley, or Cal, which are all official variations. The term University of California has come to refer to the entire University of California system. The campus office for trademarks disallows the use of Cal Berkeley, though it is occasionally used colloquially. Unlike most University of California campuses, which are commonly known by their initials, usage of UCB is discouraged (as is University of California at Berkeley), and the domain name is berkeley.edu. While ucb.edu and ucberkeley.edu are also registered by the school, they are not actively used.
Berkeley is sometimes confused with Berklee College of Music
, a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts, or Berkeley College
, a private college with campuses in New York and New Jersey
; it is not affiliated with either.
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
can be traced the establishment of the private College of California
College of California
The College of California was the predecessor of the University of California system of public universities. The private college was founded in 1855 by noted educator Dr. Samuel H. Willey...
and its merger with the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College to form the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
in 1868.
Founding
In 1866, the land that comprises the current Berkeley campus was purchased by the private College of CaliforniaCollege of California
The College of California was the predecessor of the University of California system of public universities. The private college was founded in 1855 by noted educator Dr. Samuel H. Willey...
. 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
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
. The university's charter was signed by California Governor Henry H. Haight on March 23, 1868. Professor John Le Conte
John Le Conte
John Le Conte was an American scientist and academic. He served as President of the University of California, Berkeley.-Biography:...
was appointed interim president, serving until 1870 when the Board of Regents elected Henry Durant
Henry Durant
Henry Durant was the founding president of the University of California.-Biography:Graduate of Yale College...
, the founder of the College of California.
The university opened in September 1869 using the former College of California's buildings in Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
as a temporary home while the new campus underwent construction. In 1871, the Board of Regents stated that women should be admitted on an equal basis with men. With the completion of North and South Halls
South Hall (UC Berkeley)
South Hall, built in 1873, is the oldest building on the University of California, Berkeley campus and the only remaining building of the original campus. South Hall was originally the counterpart of North Hall, which no longer exists, but was located where the Bancroft Library currently stands.The...
in 1873, the university relocated to its Berkeley location with 167 male and 222 female students. In 1874 the first Woman to graduate from the University of California was by the name of Rosa L. Scrivner with a Ph.B in Agriculture.
Early development
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
, made several large gifts to Berkeley, endowing a number of programs, sponsoring an international architectural competition, and funding the construction of Hearst Memorial Mining Building and Hearst Hall. In 1899, the University came of age under the direction of Benjamin Ide Wheeler
Benjamin Ide Wheeler
Benjamin Ide Wheeler was a Greek and comparative philology professor at Cornell University as well as President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919.-Biography:...
, the University's President until 1919. In 1905, the "University Farm" of Berkeley was formed near Sacramento
Sacramento
Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
, ultimately becoming UC Davis. UC Berkeley's reputation grew as President Wheeler succeeded in attracting renowned faculty to the campus and procuring research and scholarship funds. The campus began to take on the look of a contemporary university with Beaux-Arts and neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
buildings, including California Memorial Stadium
California Memorial Stadium
California Memorial Stadium is an outdoor football stadium on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley. Commonly known as Memorial Stadium, it is the home field for the University of California Golden Bears of the Pacific-12 Conference...
(1923) designed by architect John Galen Howard
John Galen Howard
John Galen Howard was an American architect.He is best known for his work as the supervising architect of the Master Plan for the University of California, Berkeley campus, and for founding the University of California's architecture program...
; these buildings form the core of UC Berkeley's present campus architecture.
In the 1910s, Berkeley had a significant role in the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
, when Indian students studying at the university took an active part in forming the radical Ghadar Party
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
- especially in publishing its paper, The Hindustan Ghadar
Hindustan Ghadar
thumb|right|Ghadar Newspaper Vol. 1, No. 22, March 24, 1914The Hindustan Ghadar was a weekly publication that was the party organ of the Ghadar Party. It was published under the auspices of the Yugantar Ashram in San Francisco...
, beyond the reach of the British colonial police in India.
Robert Gordon Sproul
Robert Gordon Sproul
Robert Gordon Sproul was eleventh President of the University of California serving from 1930 to 1958....
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. The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
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
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in the number of distinguished departments.
Because the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College (a public institution formed in 1866) was created by the state legislature after it took advantage of the federal Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act
Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act
The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges, including the Morrill Act of 1862 and the Morrill Act of 1890 -Passage of original bill:...
of 1862, the first male undergraduates at the new University of California were required to serve two hours per week for four years being trained in tactics, dismounted drill, marksmanship, camp duty, military engineering, and fortifications. In exchange for California's share of 150000 acres (60,702.9 ha), North Hall, which no longer exists, housed an armory. In 1904, the service requirement was dropped to two years, and in 1917, Cal's ROTC was established more or less as it exists today with ROTC programs for the four main branches of the military. The university president's report from 1902 states that "The University Cadets from last year numbered no less than 866. Appointments as second lieutenants in the regular army have been conferred upon several men who have distinguished themselves as officers in the University Cadets. It is very much to be hoped that the War Department will establish permanently the policy of offering such appointments to the graduates of each year who show the highest ability in military pursuits." Commander Chester W. Nimitz
Chester Nimitz
Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz, GCB, USN was a five-star admiral in the United States Navy. He held the dual command of Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet , for U.S. naval forces and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas , for U.S...
established the Naval ROTC at Cal in the fall of 1926. Transferred in June 1929, Captain Nimitz left a unit of 150 midshipmen enrolled with a staff of six commissioned and six petty officers.
World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Ernest Orlando Lawrence
Ernest Lawrence
Ernest Orlando Lawrence was an American physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his invention, utilization, and improvement of the cyclotron atom-smasher beginning in 1929, based on his studies of the works of Rolf Widerøe, and his later work in uranium-isotope separation for the Manhattan Project...
's Radiation Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory conducting unclassified scientific research. It is located on the grounds of the University of California, Berkeley, in the Berkeley Hills above the central campus...
in the hills above Berkeley began to contract with the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
to develop the atomic bomb, which would involve Berkeley's cutting-edge research in nuclear physics, including Glenn Seaborg
Glenn T. Seaborg
Glenn Theodore Seaborg was an American scientist who won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements", contributed to the discovery and isolation of ten elements, and developed the actinide concept, which led to the current arrangement of the...
's then-secret discovery of plutonium (Room 307 of Gilman Hall
Gilman Hall
Gilman Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Room 307 was where Glenn T. Seaborg and his coworkers identified plutonium as a new element on February 23, 1941 and as such, is designated a National Historic Landmark...
, where Seaborg discovered plutonium, would later be a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
). UC Berkeley physics professor J. Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Oppenheimer
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with Enrico Fermi, he is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first...
was named scientific head of the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
in 1942. 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
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , just outside Livermore, California, is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center founded by the University of California in 1952...
, which were established in 1943 and 1952, respectively.
From 1943 to 1946, Berkeley was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program
V-12 Navy College Training Program
The V-12 Navy College Training Program was designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II...
which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
The military increased its presence on campus to churn out recruits from the officer training corps. The army program took over Bowles Hall
Bowles Hall
Bowles Hall is an all-male residence dormitory at the University of California, Berkeley, world renowned for its unique traditions, legendary parties and camaraderie. The dormitory was the first residence hall on campus, dedicated in 1929, and was California's first state-owned dormitory...
, a dormitory, and the naval program took over the International House, the Student Co-op
University Students' Cooperative Association
Berkeley Student Cooperative is a student housing cooperative serving primarily the University of California, Berkeley but open to any full-time post-secondary student. BSC houses over 1300 students in 17 houses and 3 apartment buildings...
Barrington Hall
Barrington Hall
Barrington Hall was a student housing cooperative in the University Students' Cooperative Association system in Berkeley, California, from 1935 to 1990. It is currently privately operated student housing.-History:...
, and several fraternities for its trainees. By 1944, more than 1,000 navy personnel were studying at Cal, roughly one out of every four male Berkeley students. Former secretary of defense Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...
and former Army chief of staff Frederick C. Weyand
Frederick C. Weyand
Frederick Carlton Weyand was a U.S. Army General. Weyand was the last commander of US military operations in the Vietnam War from 1972–1973, and served as the 28th US Army Chief of Staff from 1974-1976.-Early career:...
are both graduates of Cal's ROTC program. With the end of the war and the subsequent rise of student activism, the California Board of Regents succumbed to pressure from the student government and ended compulsory military training at Berkeley in 1962.
1950s and 1960s political influences
During the McCarthy eraMcCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
in 1949, the Board of Regents
Regents of the University of California
The Regents of the University of California make up the governing board of the University of California. The Board has 26 full members:* The majority are appointed by the Governor of California for 12-year terms....
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; ten years passed before they were reinstated with back pay. One of them, Edward C. Tolman
Edward C. Tolman
Edward Chace Tolman was an American psychologist. He was most famous for his studies on behavioral psychology....
—the noted comparative psychologist
Comparative psychology
Comparative psychology generally refers to the scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of non-human animals. However, scientists from different disciplines do not always agree on this definition...
— 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.
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
Clark Kerr
Clark Kerr was an American professor of economics and academic administrator. He was the first chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley and twelfth president of the University of California.- Early years :...
became the first Chancellor of UC Berkeley.
1960s and the Free Speech Movement
Free Speech Movement
The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and...
in 1964. 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
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
— 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
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...
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. 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, and far more liberal than the surrounding city of BerkeleyBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. 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. Although Republicans are in the minority, the Berkeley College Republicans is the largest political organization on campus. 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.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
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
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to...
, while Berkeley officials say the museum's reorganization complies with the law and will involve all museum staff in the repatriation process. Animal-rights activists have taken to committing various acts of vandalism and intimidation against faculty members whose research involves the use of animals. Additionally, the university's response to a group of tree sitters
Tree sitting
Tree sitting is a form of environmentalist civil disobedience in which a protester sits in a tree, usually on a small platform built for the purpose, to protect it from being cut down...
protesting the construction of a new athletic center has galvanized some members of the local community, including the city council, against the university. 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.
As of 2006, the 32,347-student university needed more capital investment just to maintain current infrastructure than any other campus in the UC system, but as its enrollment is at capacity, it often receives less state money for improvement projects than other, growing campuses in the system. 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
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
donated $500 million to Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to establish a joint research laboratory to develop biofuel
Biofuel
Biofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Biofuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases...
s, the Hewlett Foundation gave $113 million to endow 100 faculty chairs, and Dow Chemical gave $10 million for a research program in sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
to be overseen by a Dow executive.
BP Deal
The $500 million ten-year contractContract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
between UC Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
and BP
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
(formerly BP Amoco), one of the world’s largest energy production companies, officially went into effect Wednesday November 14, 2007 following approval by a majority of the faculty. The grant is the largest in the University’s history. The deal has garnered criticism from some students and faculty
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
who claim the agreement was negotiated in secret, and that it threatens Berkeley’s reputation as an autonomous and democratic institution of higher learning. 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.
Nuclear physicist
Nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...
and BP Chief Scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
Steve Koonin began the process that led to BP’s selection of Berkeley as a co-recipient of the grant. Berkeley faculty and graduate students will aid BP scientists in designing and implementing genetically modified plants
Genetically modified organism
A genetically modified organism or genetically engineered organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one...
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
Ignacio Chapela
Ignacio Chapela is an microbial ecologist and mycologist at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for a controversial 2001 paper in Nature on the flow of transgenes into wild maize populations, as an outspoken critic of the University of California's ties to the biotechnology...
and Miguel Altieri
Miguel Altieri
Miguel Altieri is a Professor of Agroecology at the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. He received a BS in Agronomy from the University of Chile and holds a Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of Florida.He teaches courses in...
who claim that the project will displace farmland needed for food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
crops in poor nations and replace them with patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed crops owned by multinational corporations, and others including Randy Schekman
Randy Schekman
Randy W. Schekman is an American cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley and Editor-in-Chief of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2011 he was announced as the editor of a new high profile open access journal published by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the...
speaking out in support of the deal.
In March 2007 the UC Regents, who signed the deal, voted to build a new research facility to house the Energy Biosciences Institute
Energy Biosciences Institute
The Energy Biosciences Institute , formally announced on February 1, 2007, is an organization that will pursue research "to develop new sources of energy and reduce the impact of energy consumption on the environment." Funded primarily by BP, which has signed a contract to contribute 500 million...
(EBI), BP’s chosen name for the project. University officials describe it as "the first public-private institution of this scale in the world."
Names
At the time of its founding, Berkeley was the first full-curriculum public university in the state of California and thus was known as the University of California. As occurred in other states with only a single major public university, University of California was frequently shortened to California or Cal, for ease of identification. Because the school's long sports tradition stretches back to an era before the founding of the other University of California branches, its athletic teams continue to be designated as California Golden BearsCalifornia Golden Bears
The California Golden Bears is the nickname used for 29 varsity athletic programs and various club teams of the University of California, Berkeley...
, Cal Bears, or simply, Cal.
As a reflection of the University of California's development into a multi-institutional university system, the term University of California is no longer applied to the campus outside of varsity sports; the official name is University of California, Berkeley. Informally, the campus is called UC Berkeley, Berkeley, or Cal, which are all official variations. The term University of California has come to refer to the entire University of California system. The campus office for trademarks disallows the use of Cal Berkeley, though it is occasionally used colloquially. Unlike most University of California campuses, which are commonly known by their initials, usage of UCB is discouraged (as is University of California at Berkeley), and the domain name is berkeley.edu. While ucb.edu and ucberkeley.edu are also registered by the school, they are not actively used.
Berkeley is sometimes confused with Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
, a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts, or Berkeley College
Berkeley College
Berkeley College is a proprietary higher education institution founded in 1931, specializing in business and professional studies.-Academic programs:...
, a private college with campuses in New York and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
; it is not affiliated with either.