Chancellor: At Berkeley, we should come together in the face of disagreements

While UC Berkeley may be experiencing a complicated and challenging semester — with student discord around the Middle East conflict and potential cuts to state funding — there is still so much going right, Chancellor Carol Christ said during a virtual, end-of-semester Campus Conversations event on Tuesday.   

And as she approaches the final semester in her tenure as chancellor, the resilience the campus community continues to demonstrate is what she said she will remember most.  “We will always have challenges. … But resilience is a real strength of the campus,” she said. “We’re a dynamic, scrappy institution that lives on our country’s western edge and always has dreams that propel it to new places.”   

In Tuesday’s hour-long discussion, Christ took questions from the campus community on a host of issues, including the status of Berkeley’s budget, and updates on student housing developments.   

But first, Christ addressed current divisions on campus — opposing views about the armed conflict in the Middle East — and referred to this issue as one of the hardest Berkeley has faced in her time as chancellor.   

“There is such tragedy at the heart of this,” she said. “So much violence, so much killing, so much atrocity. …  And we’ve seemed to have lost the ability, not only as a campus, but as a society, to have civil, respectful conversations. … But at [Berkeley], we should be able to model how we can come together even in the face of the most extraordinary difficulties and disagreements. If we can’t do it. Who can?”   

Christ said there are programs planned for the coming semester to help model respectful and civil disagreements, including a campus podcast series and Berkeley Law events focused on promoting the importance of free speech, adding that “just because you have the right to say something doesn’t mean it’s right to say.”

While Berkeley’s budget is currently balanced, Christ said Tuesday that the state is facing a budget deficit for 2024-25. And because Berkeley’s budget is always closely tied to California’s finances, she said, campus officials will continue to advocate for and lobby the state to maintain the annual 5% allocation to Berkeley that Gov. Gavin Newsom agreed to.  But “we must be energetic in the development of other streams of revenue,” said Christ. 

That includes utilizing revenue generation opportunities at Berkeley’s new Space Center at Moffett Field, which is currently going through a two-year environmental impact report and is scheduled to have its first buildings completed in 2028, she said. Christ added that Berkeley leaders are in early discussions with city officials about a potential satellite campus in downtown San Francisco, which could bring an added revenue stream to campus. There has been no confirmation yet of those plans.  

Moreover, as the campus’s “Light the Way” campaign — which raised $7.2 billion — ends on Dec. 31, 2023, Christ said much of that philanthropy has and will supplement undergraduate financial aid, graduate student fellowships, and new faculty positions and buildings.

Christ also gave updates at the event on new student housing that will open in fall 2024, including Anchor House, a transfer student housing project on Oxford Street, and a graduate student housing building in Albany. Together, these developments will provide 1,400 beds for Berkeley students.

As for Berkeley’s People’s Park project, Christ said campus officials are waiting on a lawsuit decision from the California Supreme Court before construction can commence. Berkeley is currently offering shelter to unhoused people at the park, as “we’re trying to do our part in helping the unhoused community find housing,” she said.

Christ said she will retire on June 30, 2024, and a new chancellor will be chosen by July 1, 2024. In closing, Christ voiced appreciation to the campus community for supporting her efforts and vision as chancellor.   

“I always see this holiday season as the season of gratitude, and I just want to say thank you to everybody,” she said. “You don’t do anything of significance in this office without the partnership of so many people. From the extraordinary faculty, staff, students and alumni and the donor community. … to everybody that is listening today, thank you for everything you do for Berkeley.”