Campus & community, Campus news

Closed, open, still, stirring: Pandemic-era Berkeley in 30 photos

Wonder what the campus looks like this fall? Come, take a look.

By Gretchen Kell

Five photos show activity at UC Berkeley this fall during the pandemic: a student working in the Student Organic Garden, construction workers at Giannini Hall, a student at the food pantry moving boxwes, three students sitting 6 feet apart on the Sproul Hall steps wearing masks and two researchers in an engineering lab
(Photos by Brittany Hosea-Small and Irene Yi)

August 28, 2020

You’re miles from UC Berkeley, maybe even overseas, working remotely and wondering if central campus has become a COVID-19 ghost town with cobwebbed windows, withering brown lawns, locked doors and barely a human, or even a peregrine falcon, in sight. Is anybody there?

If you were here, you’d see nearly empty outdoor expanses and darkened classrooms and offices. And because of all-remote instruction, most of the 45,000-plus students expected to enroll aren’t around; only about 2,200 are in on-campus housing.

But check out the slideshow below. As fall 2020 semester begins, we hope you’ll be glad to see Berkeley again, from a distance. It’s very much alive, in ways you may not have imagined, and will be readying for your safe return.

The exterior of Giannini Hall shows scaffolding and other signs of construction and seismic work.
The campus is busy keeping buildings safe, clean and sanitized. A major seismic project wrapping up soon, at Giannini Hall, touched almost every corner inside the building, but carefully preserved the historic lobby. "While there's a perception that everything's sitting vacant and dusty and closed on campus, our essential workers are here every day, working fully in compliance with health directives, to bring back a campus that's as good and better than you remember," said Kyle Gibson at UC Berkeley Capital Strategies. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
Construction workers finish up renovations to Giannini Hall during the pandemic.
At Giannini Hall, workers oversee finishing touches following renovations to improve seismic safety. Accessibility and life safety upgrades were thoughtfully incorporated to maintain the hall's historical aspects, such as the two-level lobby that's considered one of the finest spaces of Art Deco design in the Bay Area. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
A line forms outside a pop-up food pantry set up in the MLK Jr. Student Union.
A line forms to enter a pop-up food pantry run by Berkeley's Basic Needs Center on the first level of the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union. During the summer, 770 people were served there, with the pantry getting roughly 550 visits a week. About one-third of those picking up groceries were staff, the rest students. The center continues helping students, via phone and Zoom appointments, to apply for Cal Fresh food benefits. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
A pop-up food pantry in MLK Jr. Student Union is filled with tables of dry goods and other emergency staples. Several students are opening boxes and stocking shelves.
"This is such a unique situation," said Natalia Semeraro, food resource coordinator at the Basic Needs Center, of the pandemic and its effects on the campus community. "People who have never had to use emergency food resources before are now anxious about their food and rent and may have lost their jobs." (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
An incoming student named Paulina Calmes, from Russia, holds up a long-stemmed Q-tip swab and learns to do a nasal self-swab test for COVID-19 at a University Health Services tent before moving into her residence hall in fall 2020.
Incoming student Paulina Calmes, from Russia, learns how to do a required nasal self-swab test for COVID-19 at a University Health Services tent before moving into her residence hall. As of this week, of the 1,887 specimens tested, three students tested positive, and two had inconclusive tests that are being treated as positive cases. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
Two students walk toward Sather Gate on a virtually empty campus during the coronavirus pandemic.
The few students who returned to Berkeley in August found a desolate campus. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
Three students who have just met sit in mask and 6 feet apart on the steps of Sproul Hall.
Despite the pandemic, many students still found community and friendships. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
Two first-year students eat lunch together, sitting 6 feet apart, outside Dwinelle Hall.
First-year friends Ann-Marie Hu (left) and Indu Abhilash enjoy a socially distanced lunch near Dwinelle Hall. Hu said that, with so few students on campus, "once you meet someone, you want to stick with them." (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
Three students, one in an inflatable blue shark costume, walk onto Sproul Plaza during the first week of remote instruction.
A student in an inflatable blue shark costume hits Sproul Plaza with a friend at each side. The trio said they wanted to cheer up students who might be feeling down about no in-person instruction as fall semester starts. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
Football players work on on equipment brought to Maxwell Family Field during the pandemic. One player is riding an exercise bicycle.
Maxwell Family Field, next to Memorial Stadium, is a makeshift workout room for football players who have voluntarily returned to campus for training. Berkeley Public Health guidelines only allow student-athletes to participate in outdoor activities that can be done in small cohorts, using physical distancing. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
A football player fills his water bottle at a so-called water tree made of punctured PVC pipe attached to a hose. The water pours out every 6 feet, to keep players safe during the pandemic.
A football player fills his water bottle at one of several "water trees" created by Cal Athletics to keep student-athletes 6 feet apart when they need to hydrate. PVC pipes punctured with holes are attached to hoses. "The staff made them up on the fly in response to what our needs were in this new environment," said Josh Hummel, senior associate athletic director for facilities, events and capital projects. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
A student-athlete does leg lifts on Maxwell Family Field, wearing a mask, during the pandemic.
A student-athlete works out on Maxwell Family Field. Some 38,000 pounds of weights, moved there when indoor workouts were banned by Berkeley Public Health during the pandemic, are frequently disinfected — as is the football field, where the players also exercise in small cohorts, with their face masks on and distance between them. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
The Big C painted on Charter Hill is partially obscured by smoke from the California wildfires.
In late August, the Big C on Charter Hill — a symbol of campus spirit that's guarded against pranks and repainted by the UC Rally Committee — is partially obscured by smoke blanketing the Bay Area during Northern California wildfires. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
Annie, the mother peregrine falcon that lives on the Campanile, sits still for an up-close shot of her head and upper chest.
Annie, the campus's longtime female peregrine falcon, hasn't been seen for more than a week. (Cal Falcons photo)
Moe Sumino, one of the student gardeners at the Student Organic Garden, kneels in the garden and tends to some young plants. She is wearing a face mask.
Refusing to abandon the nearly 50-year-old Student Organic Garden when in-person instruction ended in March, student gardeners like Moe Sumino (pictured here), one of the Student Organic Garden Association's managers, remained in the area. The students grew and harvested more than 1,200 pounds of produce for the campus Basic Needs Center and other groups and kept the garden gate open for local residents. "It's great to feel needed by the land, the plants and the community that want to be in this space," said Sumino, who otherwise would be home in Japan. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
A student tends to a patch of tomatoes at the Student Organic Garden.
Quentin Freeman, a sophomore majoring in urban studies, enjoys a Sunday afternoon tending tomatoes in the Student Organic Garden. Many students said they volunteer at the garden as an antidote to stress. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
Wearing a face mask and a bright blue jacket, Chancellor Carol Christ walks toward her office in California Hall.
In the first year of the COVID pandemic, Chancellor Carol Christ walked across a nearly empty campus toward her office.

Keegan Houser, UC Berkeley
Pottery sits on shelving in the ASUC Art Studio, which is offering online pottery classes during the pandemic.
Students in a Zoom ASUC Art Studio pottery class rent pottery wheels from the studio, take them home, interact with an instructor online, then bring their creations back to the studio. A staffer puts them into a kiln for their first firing. Students retrieve their bisqueware for glazing, then take it back for a final bake. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
Three kilns in the ASUC Art Studio sit in a row with the lids open.
During the pandemic, the ASUC Art Studio (its kilns are shown here) has many online fee-based classes, including in photography, painting and printmaking. But it also offers free downloadable coloring pages on its website and holds virtual crafting events, also without charge. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
A sign points students to a tech pickup spot for the Student Technology Equity Program.
This summer, the campus provided $4.6 million for laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots that are being loaned to students who lack the technology they need to attend class, do assignments and take tests from home during the pandemic. A sign points students to a Student Technology Equity Program (STEP) pickup zone on Lower Sproul Plaza. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
A student picks up a Wi-Fi hotspot on Lower Sproul Plaza from the Student Equity Technology Fund.
Undergraduate Angie Mendoza holds up the loaner Wi-Fi hotspot she received from STEP, which has given 2,000 eligible graduate and undergraduate students the technology they lacked for remote instruction. It's not too late to apply to STEP, which set up a distribution area in the lobby doorway of Eshleman Hall as all-remote classes began. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
Cal Dining staff members in white aprons and face masks serve takeout lunches to students moving into the residence hall.
With dining facilities closed for eating, Cal Dining staff members prepared takeout boxes so students could eat in their rooms. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
Two masked researchers discuss their work on opposite sides of a barrier made of a garment rack and a sheet of polycarbonate.
In August, two graduate students discussed their work on opposite sides of one of several barriers constructed from stainless steel garment racks and sheets of polycarbonate. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
Electronic kits in small cardboard boxes are being assembled at the College of Engineering for students who have to do their mechanical engineering lab work at home this semester.
In Hesse Hall, research and design engineer Tom Clark holds one of about 275 electronics kits being assembled for students who will be doing their mechanical engineering lab work at home this semester. Clark and others in the instructional lab have pre-assembled part of the kits; some students already received theirs in the mail, others will pick theirs up at a campus kiosk. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
The bear statue in Lower Sproul Plaza is wearing a blue face mask.
This bear statue, high off the ground on Lower Sproul Plaza, sports a blue mask on its snout — a reminder to students to keep themselves and each other safe from COVID-19. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
At the base of a statue of a bear on Lower Sproul Plaza, the pavement is marked to show the distance students should stand from each other — 6 feet — during the pandemic.
The base of the statue is marked to show students how far they should be standing from any Golden Bear on campus to adhere to social distancing mandates during the pandemic. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
A mask protects the face of a bronze statue of former Cal football coach Pappy Waldorf at the west end of Memorial Glade.
Even Pappy wears a mask. A bronze statue of legendary Cal football coach Pappy Waldorf, who took the team to three Rose Bowl games between 1949 and 1951, is at the west end of Faculty Glade. (Photo by Chris Polydoroff)
A shipping and receiving coordinator at the College of Engineering is getting overwhelmed with the volume of mail he has to handle during the pandemic. He is surrounded by boxes that need to be delivered.
Rob Baldwin and two other shipping and receiving coordinators for the College of Engineering are processing and receiving about 200 items of mail a day during the pandemic for all 12 of the college's buildings. The campus has cut back its mail delivery to just one mailroom at the college, so these essential workers are storing the mail in each of the college's rapidly-filling mailrooms until it can be retrieved. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
A custodian, Leticia Sosa, vacuums the carpet in Banatao Auditorium in Sutardja Dai Hall.
Custodian Leticia Sosa, vacuumed the carpet in the Banatao Auditorium. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
ASUC president Victoria Vera, wearing a black face mask, stands near Sather Gate.
Victoria Vera, the ASUC's new president, told students at fall convocation that the UC Berkeley community is one that's "more than academics — it is our custodial staff, the faculty, the administrators, community organizers, residents of Berkeley, our peers and many more. These individuals continually reimagine what resiliency can be." (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)