Robert Reich to address Berkeley’s December 2015 graduates

ATTENTION: Reporters covering higher education and general assignment beats; weekend, photo and TV news assignment desks

WHAT: The University of California, Berkeley will celebrate its annual December Commencement, honoring graduating students from all majors. About 650 graduating students in caps and gowns are expected to participate. Close to 5,000 tickets have been distributed.

Robert Reich (Perian Flaherty photo)

Professor Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, will deliver the commencement address. The event will also include remarks by Chancellor Nicholas Dirks.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20, 2015

WHERE: Haas Pavilion, Bancroft Way and Dana Street, near the southwest corner of the UC Berkeley campus (see campus map).

BACKGROUND:  Reich, chosen by students to be their speaker, has served in three U.S. government administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. An indefatigable thinker and speaker on income inequality, he narrated the 2013 documentary Inequality for All, and is a frequent guest and commentator on network political-affairs TV and radio programs.

Reich is the author of more than a dozen books, including Saving Capitalism, Beyond Outrage and Locked in the Cabinet. In 2008, Time magazine named him one of the 10 best Cabinet members of the 20th century. In 2003 he was awarded the prestigious Vaclav Havel Vision Foundation Prize by the former Czech president, in recognition of his pioneering work in economic and social thought.

DETAILS:  Four parking spots are reserved for media in the Dwinelle parking lot. Credentialed reporters may show their media ID at the Haas Pavilion door for admission to the event. For more details, see the December Commencement website.