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A crowd of some 3,900 in black caps and gowns, and 21,000 fanatically proud fans in the stands above, turned out at California Memorial Stadium for Saturday’s Commencement Convocation 2013. Apple co-founder and Berkeley alum Steve Wozniak keynoted the event, which was held in the sports venue for the first time in more than 40 years.
Campus news archive
Once a 300-pound weakling, now champion of fitness and health
April 23, 2013: When Devin Wicks is on the job, helping people get healthy, lose weight and shape up, he’s got a special kind of credibility: He’s been there. Once a 300-pound heavyweight, he got active, shed 100 pounds — and now is a familiar blur of action around the Recreational Sports Facility as director of fitness and health operations for UC Berkeley.
‘Create Your Own Cal Day’? Let us count the ways
April 22, 2013: UC Berkeley threw open its lecture halls and research labs, museums and libraries, galleries and gardens to some 40,000 members of the general public Saturday. It was a day that, for many, won’t be topped until Cal Day 2014.
Fourth-generation Berkeley student lands prize for water work
April 19, 2013: The Blum Center’s Rebecca Peters, whose classroom work and field research focus on issues of water security, management and equity, is one of 62 “exceptional college juniors” nationwide selected as 2013 Harry S. Truman scholars.
10 years’ progress in getting to green 
April 19, 2013: Over the past decade, environmentally minded students have championed an ambitious effort to green UC Berkeley. From aggressive climate action to organic dining options and a zero-waste goal, campus sustainability today has an army of participants and deep institutional support.
Bakar Fellows Program: Creating a new trail to solve an old problem
April 18, 2013: With the support of a Bakar Fellowship, researcher Neil Tsutsui is testing the pest-control effectiveness of a synthetic version of a natural ant pheromone he discovered. The fellowship, which supports innovative research by early career UC Berkeley faculty, is accepting applications for the 2012-14 year now.
Chancellor responds to ASUC divestment vote
April 18, 2013: “I sincerely hope that we can avoid the rancor and divisiveness that arose in the wake of a previous ASUC vote in 2010,” Chancellor Birgeneau writes, “even as we support every student’s right to freedom of expression and acknowledge the diversity of views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Margo Bennett named UCPD’s new police chief
April 18, 2013: Margo Bennett, a University of California Police Department captain with more than 35 years of law enforcement experience that ranges from community policing work to expertise in investigating major crimes at the federal level, has been named UC Berkeley’s new police chief, campus officials announced today (Thursday, April 18). She has been interim police chief since the previous chief retired in December.
Campus announces 2013-14 freshman admissions numbers
April 18, 2013: More than 14,000 students have been offered admission to UC Berkeley’s 2013-14 freshman class, according to data campus officials released today (Thursday, April 18). A record high number of more than 67,600 students had submitted applications.
Which public universities have the happiest freshmen?
April 17, 2013: UC Berkeley is high on the list of public universities where where students stick around for their sophomore year, among the 25 schools ranked according to their freshman retention rates.
Celebrating 40 years of fostering student success
April 16, 2013: Testimonies about lives changed, often against the odds, flowed freely at a weekend gala celebrating the Student Learning Center’s 40 years on campus. Providing academic support to 8,500 undergrads annually (80,000 since its launch), the SLC has much to do with Berkeley’s high retention and graduation rates, as many of its alums attested.
Chancellor honored for aid to Dream Act students
April 16, 2013: “I myself am a beneficiary of a community that supported my education,” Chancellor Birgeneau told an appreciative audience at Oakland’s Scottish Rite Center, where he accepted the Centro Legal de La Raza’s “Visionary Leadership Award.”
From geeky to cool: Statistics is Berkeley’s fastest-growing major
April 16, 2013: Being a statistician has gone from geeky to cool at UC Berkeley, where statistics has jumped to the top of the list of fastest-growing majors. In just the last four years, the number of majors has increased by 289 percent, and the trend shows no sign of reversing.
Campus’s ‘socially responsible licensing’ receives Patents for Humanity award
April 11, 2013: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office honored UC Berkeley’s technology transfer office for its socially responsible licensing to provide low-cost treatments and technologies to people in developing countries, highlighted by the successful licensing of a discovery leading to a newly launched yeast-derived malaria drug. Other projects are nutritionally fortified sorghum & disease-resistant crops.
Gold Folder helps faculty and staff ID students in distress
April 10, 2013: Faculty and staff at Berkeley now have a quick-reference guide to help them identify signs of an emotionally distressed student and take steps to access appropriate resources. In-person trainings on the new campus resource are set for two dates in April.
For California Golden Bears, it’s a brand new look 
April 10, 2013: Cal Athletics unveiled a new, streamlined visual identity, and new team uniforms, at an April 10 press conference.
Japanese cherry trees commemorate UC alumni
April 9, 2013: Saturday’s formal dedication of a Japanese cherry tree grove at the West Circle marked the culmination of an idea planted, and cultivated, by the California Japanese American Alumni Association.
Living the principles: Ruben Mejia
April 9, 2013: Kudo of the Month: L&S facilities manager Ruben Mejia, an alum who’s worked on campus for 20 years, exemplifies one of Berkeley’s five operating principles: “We include and excel, together.” We’ll be spotlighting a different staffer each month, one for each principle. Want to give kudos to a colleague? Your chance is a click away.
Contest winners shine new light on Fiat Lux
April 9, 2013: The Fiat Lux Remix contest invited students, faculty and staff members to revisit images of UC campuses commissioned in the mid-1960s by then-President Clark Kerr and taken by legendary photographer Ansel Adams – and published in the book Fiat Lux – and give them their own spin.
Breathe: Campus gears up to quit the smoking habit
April 8, 2013: UC Berkeley is going tobacco-free on January 1, 2014, along with all UC campuses. To get ready, stop-smoking services are being offered, and a task force is working on plans to put the new policy into effect/
One librarian. Eight words. One big win in New Yorker cartoon caption contest
April 8, 2013: The prize doesn’t come with a parking place. But UC Berkeley University Librarian Tom Leonard is still tickled to win The New Yorker’s weekly cartoon caption contest.
Forget your password: The future is ‘passthoughts’
April 5, 2013: Instead of typing your password, in the future you may only have to think your password, according to School of Information researchers.
18 Berkeley students head to St. Louis for Clinton Global Initiative University
April 4, 2013: The April 5-7 conference will include knowledge-sharing and networking opportunities for students committed to tackling the world’s most pressing problems and will feature speeches by Muhammad Yunus, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jack Dorsey and Stephen Colbert, among others.
42 years on, Berkeley’s provost is ready to leave the nest
April 4, 2013: George Breslauer was a 25-year-old Kremlinologist when he arrived at Berkeley in 1971 for his first teaching job. He never dreamed he’d become an administrator, much less the No. 2 man at the nation’s No. 1 public university.
Bakar Fellows Program: Mining the proteome
April 3, 2013: “We need to learn not only what is encoded in the genome – the blueprint of life – but how that actually translates into protein function in health and disease,” says Amy Herr, a Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering. Her research is supported by the campus’s Bakar Fellows Program, which helps early-career faculty pursue innovative research with commercial promise.
Berkeley alum, Class of ’50, still ‘Running Wild’
April 2, 2013: Dayton Hyde, 88, has been a cowboy, a rodeo clown, a rancher, a photographer, a non-fiction author, a novelist, a poet and a conservationist. And now he’s the star of a new documentary.
I School research looks at online collaboration and MOOCs
March 25, 2013: How can students work together in the new generation of online courses? And how can online systems support and encourage peer learning? A new UC Berkeley School of Information research project aims to answer these questions and more.
Henderson Center symposium reimagines justice
March 25, 2013: Problems of racism and violence are exacerbated by supersized prisons and misguided police practices, according to scholars, activists and community leaders gathered for the annual symposium of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at Berkeley Law.
First campus-climate survey prizewinners announced
March 22, 2013: Equity and Inclusion has announced the first winners of incentive prizes — $100 Cal 1 cards, Cal Performances tickets, RSF memberships — for Berkeley participants in the UC Climate Survey. UCOP prizes include a $10,000 undergrad scholarship. The survey remains open; students, faculty and staff who participate are eligible for more prizes.
Haas Public Service Leaders Program renewed; applications open
March 20, 2013: The Peter E. Haas Public Service Leaders Program at UC Berkeley is being continued for a second year, and applications are now being accepted. Students selected will participate in a year-long leadership development program through the Cal Corps Public Service Center.
Building a better trash can
March 19, 2013: A spate of workplace injuries, along with too much landfill, prompted Berkeley staff and students to go back to the drawing board. Their unique trash and recycling receptacles are now making their debut on campus, along with a one-of-a-kind electric trash-collection vehicle.
