Campus & community, Campus news

Sun, campus shine on Cal Day 2016

By Public Affairs

Tens of thousands flocked to campus on a sunny Saturday for Cal Day, UC Berkeley’s annual all-day open house for prospective and current students, alumni, families, friends and kids interested in exploring the many resources and opportunities the campus offers.

UC Berkeley photographers captured some photo highlights of the day: (Story continues below.)

Visitors chose from 400 events, performances, tours, faculty talks and hands-on activities to keep them entertained throughout the day.

Science enthusiasts stopped by the Valley Life Sciences Building for a close-up view of the life-size cast of a T. rex and to examine unusual specimens, from extinct mammals at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology to gargantuan insects at the Essig Museum of Entomology.

Others grabbed a cup of frozen custard at the food booths and relaxed on Memorial Glade or hopped onto a trolley for a guided tour of the campus. Those looking to get some perspective took free rides to the top of the Campanile, where they got a bird’s eye view of the campus and, as a Cal Day bonus, heard the tower’s 61 bells in duet with the first digitally created sounds of the Russian “Tsar Bell,” a 200-ton bell in Moscow’s Kremlin that broke before it could ever be played.

Prospective students discovered the various student groups and programs, from the LEAD Center to the Cal dance team to the Society of Physics Students. Visitors with an artistic bent took tours through the contemporary UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and got the inside story of the campus’s new arts and design initiative on a tour with Shannon Jackson, associate vice chancellor for arts and design.

Cal Day ended at Memorial Glade with a concert by indie rock band Built to Spill, where students and music-lovers cooled off with free refreshments.

To see more photos from the event, visit calday.berkeley.edu/ .