The University of California, Berkeley is a leading public research university located in Berkeley, California. Founded in 1868, Berkeley is the oldest of the ten research universities affiliated with the University of California system.
It is considered by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings as one of six university brands that lead in world reputation rankings in 2016 and is ranked third on the U.S. News' 2015 Best Global Universities rankings conducted in the U.S. and nearly 50 other countries.The Academic Ranking of World Universities also ranks the University of California, Berkeley fourth in the world overall, and first among public universities. It is broadly ranked first in science, third in engineering, and fifth in social sciences, with specific rankings of first in chemistry, first in physics, third in computer science, fourth in mathematics, and fourth in economics/business.The university is also well known for producing a high number of entrepreneurs.
Established in 1868 as the result of the merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College in Oakland, Berkeley offers approximately 350 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines The Dwinelle Bill of March 5, 1868 stated that the "University shall have for its design, to provide instruction and thorough and complete education in all departments of science, literature and art, industrial and profession[al] pursuits, and general education, and also special courses of instruction in preparation for the professions Cal co-manages three United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy.
Berkeley faculty, alumni, and researchers have won 72 Nobel Prizes 9 Wolf Prizes, 13 Fields Medals 22 Turing Awards, 45 MacArthur Fellowships,20 Academy Awards, 14 Pulitzer Prizes and 105 Olympic gold medals To date, along with Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley scientists and researchers have discovered 16 chemical elements of the periodic table – more than any other university in the world.Lawrence Livermore Lab also discovered or co-discovered six chemical elements. Berkeley is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and continues to have very high research activity with $730.7 million in research and development expenditures in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014.
During World War II, following Glenn Seaborg's then-secret discovery of plutonium, Ernest Orlando Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory began to contract with the U.S. Army to develop the atomic bomb. UC Berkeley physics professor J. Robert Oppenheimer was named scientific head of the Manhattan Project in 1942.[33][34] Along with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley is now a partner in managing two other labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory .
Originally, military training was compulsory for male undergraduates, and Berkeley housed an armory for that purpose. In 1917, Berkeley's ROTC program was established, and its School of Military Aeronautics trained future pilots, including Jimmy Doolittle, who graduated with a B.A. in 1922. Both Robert McNamara and Frederick C. Weyand graduated from UC Berkeley's ROTC program, earning B.A. degrees in 1937 and 1938, respectively. In 1926, future fleet admiral Chester W. Nimitz established the first Naval Reserve Officers Training Corpsunit at Berkeley. During World War II, the military increased its presence on campus to recruit more officers, and by 1944, more than 1,000 Berkeley students were enrolled in the V-12 Navy College Training Program and naval training school for diesel engineering. The Board of Regents ended compulsory military training at Berkeley in 1962.
During the McCarthy era in 1949, the Board of Regents adopted an anti-communist loyalty oath. A number of faculty members objected and were dismissed ten years passed before they were reinstated with back pay.
Funding
As state funding declined,Berkeley turned to private sources: BP donated $400 million over 10 years to develop biofuels,theHewlett Foundation gave $113 million to endow 100 faculty chairs, and Dow Chemical gave $10 million to research sustainability.The BP grant has been criticized fordiverting food production to fuel production. The 2008–13 Campaign for Berkeley raised $3.13 billion from 281,855 donors.
The original name University of California was frequently shortened to California or Cal. UC Berkeley's athletic teams date to this time and so are referred to as the California Golden Bears, Cal Bears, or just Cal. Today, University of California refers to a statewide school system. Referring to the University of California, Berkeley as UCB or University of California at Berkeley is discouraged and the domain name is berkeley.edu. Moreover, the term "Cal Berkeley" is not a correct reference to the school, but is occasionally used. Berkeley is unaffiliated with the Berklee College of Music or Berkeley College.
Undergraduate programs
The four-year, full-time undergraduate program has a focus on the arts and sciences with a high level of co-existence in undergraduate and graduate programs. Freshman admission is selective but there are high levels of transfer-in. 106 Bachelor's degrees are offered across the Haas School of Business (1), College of Chemistry (5), College of Engineering (20), College of Environmental Design (3), College of Letters and Science (67), College of Natural Resources (10), and other individual majors (2). The most popular majors are Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Political Science, Molecular and Cell Biology, Environmental Science, and Economics.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2015–2016 ranks Berkeley 13th in the world for academics and 6th in the world for reputation. In its 2016 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked Berkeley 3rd in their "Best Global University Rankings. In 2015, Berkeley was ranked 4th in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities and 26th in the QS World University Rankings. The Center for World University Rankings ranked the university 7th in the world based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, publications, influence, citations, broad impact, and patents in 2015.
The Berkeley campus encompasses approximately 1,232 acres though the "central campus" occupies only the low-lying western 178 acres of this area. Of the remaining acres, approximately 200 acres are occupied by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; other facilities above the main campus include the Lawrence Hall of Science and several research units, notably the Space Sciences Laboratory, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, an undeveloped 800-acre ecological preserve, the University of California Botanical Garden and a recreation center in Strawberry Canyon. Portions of the mostly undeveloped, eastern area of the campus are actually within the City of Oakland; these portions extend from the Claremont Resort north through the Panoramic Hill neighborhood to Tilden Park.
To the west of the central campus is the downtown business district of Berkeley; to the northwest is the neighborhood of North Berkeley, including the so-called Gourmet Ghetto, a commercial district known for high quality dining due to the presence of such world-renowned restaurants as Chez Panisse. Immediately to the north is a quiet residential neighborhood known as Northside with a large graduate student population situated north of that are the upscale residential neighborhoods of the Berkeley Hills. Immediately southeast of campus lies fraternity row, and beyond that the Clark Kerr Campus and an upscale residential area named Claremont. The area south of the university includes student housing and Telegraph Avenue, one of Berkeley's main shopping districts with stores, street vendors and restaurants catering to college students and tourists. In addition, the University also owns land to the northwest of the main campus, a 90-acre married student housing complex in the nearby town of Albany and a field research station several miles to the north in Richmond, California.
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. During the 2006–07 school year, there were 94 political student groups on campus including MEChXA de UC Berkeley, BerkeleyAmerican Civil Liberties Union, Berkeley Students for Life, Campus Greens, The Sustainability Team the Berkeley Student Food Collective, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Cal Berkeley Democrats, and the Berkeley College Republicans. Berkeley sends the most students to the Peace Corps of any university in the nation.
The Residence Hall Assembly is the student-run residence hall organization that oversees all aspects of residence wide event planning, legislation, sponsorships and activities for over 7,200 on-campus undergraduate residents. Founded in 1988 by the President's Council, it is now funded and supported by the Residential and Student Service Programs department on campus.
California – Stanford rivalry
One of the most famous moments in Big Game history occurred during the 85th Big Game on November 20, 1982. In what has become known as "the band play" or simply 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 California Golden Bears is the nickname used for 30 varsity athletic programs and various club teams of the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as California or Cal, the university competes in the NCAA's Division I primarily as a member of the Pac-12 Conference, and for a limited number of sports as a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation . Over the course of the school's history, California has won team national titles in 13 men's and 3 women's sports and 103 team titles overall. Cal athletes have also competed in the Olympics for a host of different countries. Notable facilities used by the Bears include California Memorial Stadium and Haas Pavilion . Cal finished the 2010–11 athletic season with 1,219.50 points, earning third place in the Director's Cup standings, the Golden Bears' highest finish ever. Cal did not receive any points for its national championships in rugby and men's crew because those sports are not governed by the NCAA. Cal finished 12th in the 2014-15 standings.
Football
The California football team began play in 1885 and with its home games at California Memorial Stadium , except for in 2011 while Memorial Stadium was being renovated; the team played at San Francisco's AT&T Park. The team also has produced two of the oddest and most memorable plays in college football: Roy "Wrong Way" Riegels' fumble recovery and run toward the Cal goal line in the 1929 Rose Bowl, and The Play in the 1982 Big Game with the winning kickoff return after five laterals. The program is nationally renowned despite not participating in a major bowl game between 1959 and, yet has been consistently ranked nationally during the past decade. The program has also produced many current NFL stars, including but not limited to Aaron Rodgers Ryan Longwell, Marshawn Lynch, DeSean Jackson, Desmond Bishop, and Jahvid Best. The recently retired Tony Gonzalez, the NFL's all-time receptions leader among tight ends, played both football and basketball at Cal. Head coach Sonny Dykes began his tenure in 2012.
Cross country
The University of California's intercollegiate cross country team is under the direction of head coach Tony Sandoval who is in his 30th year at the university and 20th season as the cross country head coach.
Golf
The University of California's golf team has won one team national championship in 2004 and won two conference championships in 2012 and 2013. They also have one individual national champion, Max Homa, in 2013. The team's home course is at the Orinda Country Club in Orinda, they currently practice at the Metropolitan Golf Links inOakland, and the head coach is Steve Desimone.