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UC Berkeley

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
103 Cross-Sproul Path
Berkeley, California 94720
Phone
(510) 642-6000
School Information
"Berkeley is internationally renowned for excellence and pioneering achievements across all disciplines. At the heart of its preeminence are Berkeley’s professors, highly distinguished researchers and scholars — and leading experts in their fields. "#1 public university in global rankings: In 2020, Berkeley was the No. 1 public institution in U.S. News & World Report’s global rankings." The university enrolls over 43,200 students and offers over 10,000 courses in over 300 degree programs. (Source: https://admissions.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/H14031-cal-facts-2020-final.pdf)
General Information
UC Berkeley has provided anti-racist resources to its community, through livestreamed events and interviews about race and politics. Additionally, it has invested tremendous finances and resources into promoting anti-racist research. The university has allotted $1.5 million to nine departmental grants to improve "departmental climates". Additionally, the Chancellor has committed to increased public programming and research into "anti-blackness", although the exact amount of funding is unclear. The Business Process Management Office, "Integrated anti-racist competencies into the core curriculum" of Berkeley Public Health. See developments below:

Actions Taken

Admissions Policies
  • The university established and funded the Becoming an Anti-Racist Campus Steering Committee, which is charged with "developing an action plan to ensure that our mission of research, teaching and service is fulfilled through antiracist frameworks."
Anti-Racism, Bias, and Diversity Training
  • The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences said, "Faculty, students and postdocs engaged in the Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) initiative, including creating one of the inclusivity tips recordings. Their deliverables were incorporated in the department’s strategic plan for diversity, equity, inclusion and access, and implementation was summarized in an AGU presentation." It also said, "We provide implicit bias training and cover the costs of antiracist reading material."
  • The B4 - Building Belonging @ Berkeley and Beyond virtual dialogue series strives to "[engage] in dialogue that challenges colonial and oppressive ideologies and practices by naming the forces that are oppressive and honoring critical forms of consciousness like mestiza consciousness (Anzaldúa, 1987), Indigenísta thought (Grande, 2004), and Black Feminist Thought (Hill-Collins, 1990)."
Curriculum Changes and Requirements
  • The School of Information is offering an "Antiracism in Technology" class.
  • The Business Process Management Office completed the Anti-Racist Faculty Academy and "Integrated anti-racist competencies into the core curriculum" of Berkeley Public health.
Faculty/Staff Requirements
  • The university's Office for Faculty Equity & Welfare has a "Rubric for Assessing Candidate Contributions to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging." This rubric, according to the school, is "a template for search committees to use for assessing candidate contributions to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). It is a guide, and can be adapted to specific searches as appropriate given departmental or disciplinary expertise."
Program and Research Funding
  • Chancellor Carol Crist committed to increased public programming and research into anti-racism and “anti-blackness.”
  • UC Berkeley has allotted $1.5 million to nine departmental grants to "improve departmental climates" via "diversity".
  • UC Berkeley decided to keep its "Institute for the Study of Societal Issues" as protestors argued the center's closure would undermine "UC Berkeley’s commitment to people of color."
  • UC Berkeley was seeking a professor of Critical Race Theory for its media department.
Resources
  • UC Berkeley hosted a liverstreamed event, titled "Critical race theory and the 2020 election."
  • University posted a "mosaic" of interviews, detailing how faculty and staff viewed the role of race in the 2020 Election.
  • The university library offers Ibram X. Kendi's "Anti Racism Reader."
  • The Art History Library offers an "Art History: Social justice and anti-racism library resources" guide, which includes Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility" and Ibram X. Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist."
  • The university offers "Antiracism Resources," including an educator's guide for Ibram X. Kendi's "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" and "The 1619 Project Curriculum by The Pulitzer Center."
  • The American Cultures Center hosted an event titled, "More Than Words: In Conversation with the Language of Racial and Social Justice-Making." The description partly reads, "Commitments to the work that connects diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging/justice, anti-racism, anti-Blackness, anti-white supremacy and abolition work, are deep and rich. Each of these terms also have motivations and genealogies. During this event there was a discussion focused on unpacking the relationships between these frameworks and how they help us better understand and situate the work and the questions that they generate."
  • The School of Information hosted an event called "Beyond the Ouch: Activating Anti-racists in Data and Digital Spaces." The description reads, "For years, we have witnessed expansive dialogue in response to the growing wisdom that racial bias is quite often baked into our data, digital, and technological systems. What are some ways we can begin to systematize our evolving anti-racism understanding, get activated to shape policy, and counter harmful narratives and discourse that often lead to reactionary innovation? This talk seeks to deepen questions and analysis and encourage activation towards coliberation."
  • The university hosted Ibram X. Kendi at event about his book "How to be an Anti-Racist," as part of the "Haas Institute's Research to Impact Series, co-sponsorship with Northern California Grant Makers and Borealis Philantrophy."
  • On January 27, 2023, the school's News section published an article titled "Sharing, naming our sadness and grief about Tyre Nichols" and shared a message from University Officials who stated, "There is so much to say about the complexities of this situation. There is so much for us as individuals and communities to process, reflect on, and act on."
  • In early February 2023, Berkeley hosted "The Becoming An Anti-Racist Campus Symposium", which was a virtual opportunity to "participate in collective learning, and conversations about UC Berkeley’s path to becoming an Anti-Racist campus." The five cornerstones of the "emerging Anti-Racist Campus Framework" were discussed: Representation, Advancement & Belonging; Personal and Professional Development & Accountability; Research, Teaching & Learning; Organizational Structures, Systems & Policies; and Community and Public Engagement & Accountability.
  • UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management partnered with the Berkeley Center for Teaching and Learning to create a "course redesign tool" called Advancing Inclusion and Anti-Racism in the College Classroom.
  • Berkeley has an Office for Faculty Equity & Welfare.
Symbolic Actions
  • Administration will “work with the Black community to identify opportunities to leverage cultural symbols such as art and building names to communicate belonging for the Black community.”
  • On February 16, 2023, UC Berkeley announced its pursuit to become a federally-designated Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI). This pursuit "draws inspiration from and contributes momentum to" UC Berkeley’s ongoing efforts to obtain a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) federal designation, "as well as [its] efforts to become an anti-racist campus."
  • Berkeley School of Public Health's antiracism statement writes that "racism is a fundamental cause of health inequities and has been declared a public health crisis by over 200 cities and counties, 18 states, and numerous health and healthcare organizations across the country."
Last updated September 16th, 2023
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