The fall semester is always a magical time for me — like the first page of a novel. You feel the excitement of new students embarking on their college or graduate school years and new faculty beginning their careers. It was in my first year as a faculty member that I fell in love with Berkeley — a love that still animates me now.
As Berkeley’s new chancellor, I want to share my goals with you.
Chancellor Carol Christ. Photo: Keegan Houser
The first is to build a community in which every individual and group feels welcomed and valued. In recent years, we have faced financial challenges, a leadership crisis, highly public sexual harassment cases, violence, and controversy around the issue of free speech. These have taken their toll. I will rebuild our sense of community, in part, through timely and transparent communications and with shoe leather — engaging directly with students, faculty, and staff — and also by creating occasions in which, together, we can feel that this is our Berkeley. I also intend to spend more time with government leaders in Berkeley and Sacramento.
Too often, Berkeley seems like a place where students survive. My second goal is to ensure every student has the best chance at the education and university experience to which he or she aspires, and to participate in discovery experiences that are the very essence of attending a leading research university.
Critical to this goal is expanding housing. We house only 22 percent of undergraduates — by far the lowest percentage of any other UC campus — and only 9 percent of our graduate students. In a market as expensive as the Bay Area, this creates a challenge that diminishes their experience. They often live in housing that is too crowded, too expensive, or too far away, distracting them from their studies. We must and will change this situation.
My third goal is to make major progress on diversity among our students, faculty, and staff. Demographics are only one dimension of the challenge; if we cannot build a greater understanding of diversity and a more inclusive climate, numeric gains alone will have less impact. At Berkeley, diversity is intrinsically tied to excellence.
My fourth goal is to create the conditions that enable faculty to continue doing transformative research for the public good. We have faculty working on every problem fundamental to humankind and to the planet. Their research is central to our public mission and one of the most profound and significant benefits that UC offers the public.
My final goal is to develop a sustainable financial model. This is much more than eliminating our deficit, although 2016 ended with a deficit of $150 million and 2018 will end with a deficit of $56 million. My strategy has been to increase and diversify revenue sources; we have met half our goal for 2018 through new revenues.
Thank you for your ongoing love and support of Berkeley. I look forward to partnering with you in the years ahead.
