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The University of California, Berkeley (also known as the "University of California at Berkeley", "UC Berkeley", or "Berkeley") is the oldest and flagship campus of the ten-campus University Of California system. Many people refer to the University as "Cal", although typically with reference to sporting activities. Founded in 1868, the campus is located in Berkeley , California , occupying about 200 acres on a wooded slope, plus an additional 1000 acres (4 km&2) covering the steeply sloping Berkeley Hills overlooking San Francisco Bay . Berkeley's academic programs have been considered among the best in the world since the end of World War II, and surveys such as those by the American Council On Education have praised the university for its broad range of academic strengths, not just in mathematics, science and engineering, but in the arts, humanities and social sciences as well. Faculty Nobel Prize winners have included Melvin Calvin, Charles Townes, Glenn T. Seaborg, Luis Alvarez, Edwin McMillan, Emilio Segre, Owen Chamberlain, Czeslaw Milosz, and many others. There are presently six Nobel Laureates teaching at Berkeley. Berkeley physicists, led by Robert Oppenheimer, played a key role in developing the atomic bomb during WW II, and the University has managed the nation's two principal nuclear weapons labs (now also used for more peaceful research) at Livermore and Los Alamos ever since. Berkeley scientists discovered Plutonium , invented the Cyclotron , developed the Laser , isolated the Polio virus, designed experiments that confirmed Bell's Theorem , discovered numerous elements (including, of course, Berkelium and Californium ). But Berkeley faculty have a no less distinguished record in fields outside the sciences as well. The campus has in recent years been involved in controversy over the proper role in undergraduate admissions of Affirmative Action and related policies based on race or economic disadvantage. Admissions policies notwithstanding, undergraduate students at Berkeley are academically well-qualified, and the problem of short-changed lower-division students and favoritism in undergraduate admissions is a national trend that affects all major universities, not just Berkeley. Berkeley still enjoys a certain notoriety for its history of student activism. The riots ( 1968 ) were part of a wave of international student protest that took place during the 1960s, associated with an accompanying " Hippie " Counterculture . For all of its student activism and rebellious history, however, the Berkeley campus is remarkably serene, with numerous quiet, green areas on campus and many architecturally distinguished buildings. HISTORY In 1866, the land which is now the Berkeley campus was purchased by the private College Of California (established by Congregational minister Henry Durant in 1855). Lacking sufficient funds to operate, the College of California merged with state-run Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College, forming the University Of California on March 23 , 1868 . Durant was the first president. In 1869, the university opened in Oakland using the former College of California's buildings.http://www.berkeley.edu/about/history/ In 1873, with the completion of North and South Halls, the university relocated to the Berkeley campus with 167 male and 222 female students. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/campuses/ucb/overview.html The university came of age under the direction of and Neoclassical buildings 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 world-class universities and colleges to study their educational and administrative methods as well as to establish connections through which he could draw talented faculty to the campus in the future.http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/overview/presidents/index2.html#sproul In spite of funding cutbacks caused by the Great Depression and World War II , Sproul maintained academic and research excellence 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 During World War II, . Two other University of California-managed labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , were also established during this period, in 1943 and 1952, respectively. During the —the noted Comparative Psychologist —now 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 The University's academic achievements were partly upstaged by its student activism during the s, and by 1967 police officers were using Tear Gas against the crowds. In 1969, a group of Berkeley students claimed an empty lot that the University was going to convert into a dormitory as " People's Park ". California governor Ronald Reagan -- who had said in his gubernatorial election campaign that he would "clean up the mess" at Berkeley, and who managed to get Chancellor Clark Kerr fired weeks after he took office because Kerr refused to crack down on the Free Speech Movement -- called in National Guard troops. The University eventually gave in to the protestors, but not until over a dozen people were hospitalized, a police officer stabbed, and one student killed."Berkeley in the 60s", Bancroft Library web exhibit. Ironically, People's Park remained an empty lot for a long time thereafter, 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. Today, students at UC Berkeley are less politically active than their predecessors and have opinions similar to students at most other American universities.http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=19267 CAMPUS ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHITECTS See Also: University of California, Berkeley Campus Architecture The campus is approximately 1,232 acres (5 km&2) in its entirety, though the main campus is on the western 178 acres (0.7 km&2). The campus is bordered on the west by downtown Berkeley, on the north by older neighborhoods, and on the east by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Berkeley hills. The south campus area includes student housing and Telegraph Avenue, a raffish shopping strip heavily populated by "street people". The campus is divided by two branches of Strawberry Creek . The south fork appears by the Haas School of Business and runs along the edge of the campus core 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 also contains numerous wooded areas including Founders' Rock, Faculty Glade, Grinnell Natural Area, and the Eucalyptus Grove, said to be the tallest stand of hardwood trees in North America. Several research units overlook the campus from the rugged eastern foothills, notably the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , the Space Sciences Laboratory , the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute , and the Lawrence Hall Of Science . Residential halls and administrative buildings dot the city of Berkeley, mostly south of the main campus. The campus and surrounding community are home to a number of buildings designed by early 20th-century campus architect John Galen Howard , his peer Bernard Maybeck (best known for the Palace Of Fine Arts in San Francisco), and Maybeck's student Julia Morgan . Later buildings were designed by architects such as Charles Willard Moore ( Haas School Of Business ) and Joseph Esherick (Wurster Hall). Very little of the original University of California (c. 1868–1903) remains, with the Victorian Second Empire-style South Hall and Piedmont Avenue (designed by Frederick Law Olmsted ) being notable exceptions. Built in 1873, South Hall is the oldest university building in California. What is considered the historic campus today was the eventual 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, 1899). Online Exhibit on the Hearst Architectural Competition Much of the older campus is built in the Beaux-Arts Classical style, today referred to as the “classical core” of the campus. Howard designed over twenty buildings, which set the tone for the campus up until its expansion in the 1950s and 1960s. These included the Hearst Greek Theatre , the 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 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, such as North Gate Hall, Dwinelle Annex, and Stephens Hall. Many of these and other campus buildings are recognized California Historical Landmarks and are now listed on the National Register Of Historic Places .2 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): # Clark Kerr (1952–58) # Glenn T. Seaborg (1958–61) # Edward W. Strong (1961–65) # Martin E. Meyerson (1965, acting) # Roger W. Heyns (1965–71) # Albert H. Bowker (1971–80) # Ira Michael Heyman (1980–90) # Chang-Lin Tien (1990–97) # Robert M. Berdahl (1997–2004) # Robert J. Birgeneau (2004–-present) Colleges and schools Berkeley's 130-plus academic departments and programs are organized into 14 colleges and schools. ("Colleges" are both undergraduate and graduate, while "Schools" are graduate-only, the exception being the School of Business.):
Labor unions representing U.C. Berkeley employees
ACADEMICS Berkeley is an exceptionally 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 Public University , and the average class consists of 30 students (not including discussion sections led by Graduate Student Instructors ). However, introductory classes consisting of hundreds of students are not unusual, and Berkeley professors tend to be more interested in research than in undergraduate teaching. Berkeley's faculty includes 221 ) Berkeley has graduated more students who go on to earn doctorates than any other university in the United States, and its enrollment of National Merit Scholars was third in the nation until 2002, when participation in the National Merit program was discontinued.http://ucnewswire.org/news_viewer.cfm?story_PK=4989 Berkeley's acceptance rate to medical school of 63.4% is among highest of all public universities.http://career.berkeley.edu/MedStats/MedStats.stm Campus Enrollment The following statistics are calculated from the Fall 2004 enrollment and were released by the University of California system (the 2005 statistics will be released Fall 2006):
:Women: 12,019 :Men: 10,125
:African American: 3.8% :American Indian: .6% :Asian/Pacific Islander: 38.8% :Chicano/Latino: 10.9% :White: 31.5% :Other: 5.3% :Not Stated: 9.1%
Rankings According to the programs ranked in the top five by '' US News And World Report ''. ''US News'' also consistently ranks Berkeley as the nation’s top Public University and within the top three for both Undergraduate Business and Undergraduate Engineering. The World Universities Rankings performed in 2004 by the UK '' Times Higher Education Supplement '' named Berkeley the number two university in the world overall. Similar findings by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Institute for Higher Education placed Berkeley as fourth in the world. Those rankings were based upon alumni and faculty quality defined by awards won, papers published, frequency of citation by peers, and performance relative to size. Shanghai Jiao Tong University Institute for Higher Education: 2005 Academic Ranking of World Universities Admissions See Also: University of California, Berkeley Student Admissions In 2006, Berkeley admitted 9,500 freshmen from an application pool of 42,000 applicants, an acceptance rate of 23.5%. Admitted students in 2005 had an average weighted GPA of 4.33 and average score of 1360 (94th Percentile) on the SAT admissions test. Graduate admissions vary by department, although in 2005 the university's graduate program admitted 3,444 students from a pool of 18,333 applicants, an overall acceptance rate of 18.3%. UC Berkeley Performance Metrics Library system See Also: University of California, Berkeley Library System Berkeley’s 32 libraries together make up the fifth largest academic library in the United States, surpassed only by the Library Of Congress , Harvard , Yale , and the University Of Illinois . In 2003, the Association Of Research Libraries ranked it as the top public university library in North America based on various statistical measures of quality.http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/06/20_libry.htmlAs of 2006, Berkeley’s library system contains over 10 million volumes and maintains over 70,000 serial titles.http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/news_events/whats-new.html The libraries together cover over 12 acres of land and comprise one of the largest library complexes in the world.http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/97legacy/gard.html Doe Library serves as the library system's reference, periodical, and administrative center, while most of the main collections are now housed in the subterranean Gardner Main Stacks and Moffit Undergraduate Library. Contributions to computer science UC Berkeley has nurtured a number of key technologies associated with the early development of the Internet and the Open Source Software Movement . The original Berkeley Software Distribution , commonly known as BSD Unix , was assembled in 1977 by Bill Joy , a graduate student in the computer science department. Joy also developed the original version of Vi . PostgreSQL emerged from faculty research begun in the late 1970s. Sendmail was developed at Berkeley in 1981. BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain package) was written by a team of graduate students around the same time period. The Tcl programming language and the Tk GUI toolkit were developed by faculty member John Ousterhout in 1988. SPICE and Espresso , popular tools for IC Designers, were invented at Berkeley under the direction of Professor Donald Pederson . The RAID and RISC technologies were both developed at Berkeley under David Patterson . Perhaps the most influential contributions to computing from UC Berkeley have been the algorithms and analysis of Floating-point arithmetic, led by Professor William Kahan . They include extensive and ongoing contributions to the IEEE 754 standard. The XCF , an undergraduate research group located in Soda Hall, has been responsible for a number of notable software projects, including GTK+ , The GIMP , and the initial diagnosis of the Morris Worm . In 1992 Pei-Yuan Wei , an undergraduate at the XCF, created ViolaWWW , one of the first graphical Web Browser s. ViolaWWW was the first browser to have embedded scriptable objects, stylesheets, and tables. In the spirit of Open Source, he donated the code to Sun Microsystems , inspiring Java Applet s. ViolaWWW would also inspire researchers at the National Center For Supercomputing Applications to create the Mosaic web browser. SETI@home was one of the first widely disseminated Distributed Computing projects, allowing hobbyists and enthusiasts to participate in scientific research by donating unused computer processor cycles in the form of a screen saver. In an interesting example of the confluence of disparate ideas, many of the arguments for the efficacy of Open Source software development, and of the Wikipedia project itself, find parallels in writings on urban planning and architecture published in the late 1970s by Christopher Alexander , a Berkeley professor of Architecture . At the same time, John Searle , a Berkeley professor of philosophy, introduced a critique of Artificial Intelligence using the metaphor of a Chinese Room . Berkeley has established partnerships with Yahoo! , Sun Microsystems , Google , and Microsoft . Yahoo! Research Berkeley Labs will focus on mobile media technology and social media in a facility adjacent to the campus. Sun Microsystems, Google, and Microsoft are funding a $7.5 million dollar Reliable, Adaptive And Distributed Systems Laboratory to develop more reliable computing systems. List of research projects conducted at Berkeley:
See also: DISTINGUISHED BERKELEY PEOPLE Nobel Prize s have been awarded to nineteen past and present faculty, among the 58 Nobel Laureates Associated With The University .
STUDENT LIFE . (Note the Stanford visitors section on the left and the UC Berkeley alumni section on the right.)]] Athletics and traditions See Also: California Golden Bears UC Berkeley's sports teams compete in intercollegiate athletics as the California Golden Bears. They participate in the graduates while Gold was selected to represent the Golden State of California. "Cal" has a long history of excellence in athletics, having won national titles in football, men's basketball, baseball, softball, men's and women's crew, men's gymnastics, men's tennis, men's and women's swimming, men's water polo, men's track and rugby. In addition, Cal athletes have won numerous individual NCAA titles in track, gymnastics, swimming and tennis. The official mascot is Oski The Bear , who first debuted in 1941. Previously, live bear cubs were used as mascots at Memorial Stadium . It was decided in 1940 that a costumed mascot would be a better alternative to a live bear. Named after the Oski-wow-wow yell, he is cared for by the Oski Committee, who have sole knowledge of the identity of the costume-wearer.http://calbears.collegesports.com/trads/cal-m-fb-mas.html The Golden Bears' greatest rivalry is with the Stanford Cardinal. The most anticipated sporting event between the two universities is the annual football game dubbed the Big Game , and it is celebrated with spirit events on both campuses. Since 1933, the winner of the Big Game has been awarded custody of The Stanford Axe . One of the most famous moments in Big Game history occurred in the 85th Big Game on November 20, 1982. In what has become known simply as The Play , Cal scored the winning touchdown in the final seconds with a kickoff return that involved a series of laterals and the Stanford marching band rushing onto the field. The University Of California Marching Band , which has served the university since 1891, performs at every home football game and at select road games as well. A smaller subset of the Cal Band, the Straw Hat Band, performs at events that are less suitable for the full band: basketball games, volleyball games, and other campus and community events.http://www.calband.berkeley.edu/calband/about/ -- Home of Cal Basketball and other indoor sports]]The university has a Rally Committee, formed in 1901, whose members serve as the official guardians of Cal Spirit. Wearing their traditional blue and gold rugbies, RallyComm can be seen at all major sporting and spirit events. RallyComm members are charged with the maintenance of the five Cal flags, the large California banner overhanging the Memorial Stadium student section, the California Victory Cannon, and the Big C. The Rally Committee is also responsible for safekeeping of the Stanford Axe when it is in California's possession.http://ucrc.berkeley.edu/ Overlooking the main Berkeley campus from the foothills in the east, the Big C is an indelible symbol of California school spirit. The Big C has its roots in an early 20th century campus event called "Rush," which pitted the freshman and sophomore classes against each other in a wrestling match. It was eventually decided to discontinue Rush and in 1905, the freshman and sophomore classes banded together in a show of unity to build the Big C. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CalHistory/traditions.html Owing to its prominent position, the Big C is often the target of pranks by rival Stanford University students who paint the Big C red. One of RallyComm's functions is to repaint the Big C to its previous color (usually yellow) if such a prank is pulled. Cal students invented the college football tradition of card stunts. They were first performed during the 1910 and a large blue "C" on a white background. The tradition continues today in the Cal student section and incorporates complicated motions, for example tracing the Cal script logo on a blue background with an imaginary pen.http://calbears.collegesports.com/trads/cal-m-fb-tour.html The California Victory Cannon, placed on Tightwad Hill overlooking the stadium, is fired before every football home game, after every score, and after a Cal win. First used in the 1963 Big Game, it was originally placed on the sidelines before moving to Tightwad Hill in 1971. The only time the cannon has run out of ammunition was during a game against the Pacific in 1991, when Cal scored 12 touchdowns.http://calbears.collegesports.com/trads/victory-cannon.html Student housing See Also: UC Berkeley student housing UC Berkeley's student housing accommodates a variety of personal and academic preferences and styles. Presently, the university offers two years of guaranteed housing for entering freshmen, and the immediately surrounding community offers apartments, Greek (fraternity and sorority) housing, and Co-ops. There are four complexes to the south of campus in the City of Berkeley: Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, and Clark Kerr. These dormitories offer traditional hall-style accommodations with common areas in the center of the floors. Because of their communal design and integration with the city, they tend to be the more social of the housing options. Units 1 and 2 also have many of the newest dormitory buildings, which are intended for continuing and transfer students.http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/01/11_spring05.shtml Just outside these complexes are the Channing-Bowditch and Ida Jackson apartments also intended for older students.http://www.housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/channing_bowditch.htmlhttp://www.housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/jackson_house.html Continuing south is the Clark Kerr dormitory that houses many of the student athletes and was a former school for the deaf and the blind. This dorm is considered the most spacious and luxurious, but is the furthest from campus. On the eastern foothills are three complexes: Foothill, Stern, and Bowles. , as seen at the 2003 Homecoming and Parents Weekend]]Foothill is a co-ed suite-style dorm reminiscent of a Swiss chalet. Just south of Foothill, overlooking the Hearst Greek Theatre , is the all-girls traditional-style Stern Hall, which exhibits an original mural by Diego Rivera . Because of their proximity to the College Of Engineering and College Of Chemistry , these dorms often house science and engineering majors. They tend to be quieter than the southside complexes, but because of their location next to the theatre, often get free glimpses of concerts. 's top-10 college parties during halloween, although the university has also cracked down on this activity. Currently, the residence is being courted by the Haas School Of Business to become housing for scholars and business professionals who visit Berkeley.http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/alameda_county/berkeley/13367408.htm There is a great deal of opposition to this plan and no final decisions have been made.
Student groups UC Berkeley has over 700 established student groups. UC Berkeley has a reputation for Student Activism , stemming from the 1960s and the Free Speech Movement . Today, Berkeley is known as a lively campus with activism in many forms, from email petitions, presentations on Sproul Plaza and volunteering, to the occasional protest. Berkeley sends the most students to the Peace Corps of any university in the nation.http://www.ucop.edu/pathways/infoctr/introuc/ucb.html The IDEAL Scholars Fund was established by four alumni to increase the number of qualified, underrepresented students of color at UC Berkeley. It tries to counter the passing of California Proposition 209 , which ended Affirmative Action in California and the University Of California system. The resulting reduction in Latino, African American and Native American students rekindled activism concerning issues of race. The Associated Students Of The University Of California (ASUC) is the Student Government organization that controls funding for student groups and organizes on-campus student events. It is one of the most autonomous student governments in any Public University in the U.S. UC Berkeley's independent student-run newspaper is the '' Daily Californian ''. Founded in 1871, ''The Daily Cal'' became independent in 1971 after the campus administration fired three senior editors for encouraging readers to take back People's Park . Berkeley's FM radio station, KALX , broadcasts on 90.7 MHz. It is run largely by volunteers, including both students and community members. Democratic Education At Cal , or DeCal, is a program that promotes the creation of professor-sponsored, student-facilitated classes through the Special Studies 98/198 program. DeCal was born out of the 1960's Free Speech Movement and was officially established in 1981. Today it sponsors an eclectic group of over one hundred classes with subjects ranging from "The Simpsons and Philosophy" to "Intro to DJing." REFERENCES IN POP CULTURE See also:
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