Chancellor Rich Lyons talks finances, rankings and ‘painting a picture’ of UC Berkeley’s future
At his first Campus Conversations event as chancellor, Lyons also fielded questions about staff burnout, diversity and belonging on campus, and his family's move to University House with their dog, Winston.
Keegan Houser/UC Berkeley
September 27, 2024
UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons on Thursday outlined the beginnings of his long term vision for the campus, highlighting a future with reimagined funding arrangements that would add stability to how core parts of campus — from sports teams to deferred maintenance — are paid for.
On the job for less than three months, Lyons used his first Campus Conversations event to reintroduce himself to the Berkeley campus community, touting his Bay Area upbringing and deep connections to learning and teaching at Berkeley. He told the audience gathered at Alumni House and watching live online that, since becoming chancellor on July 1, he’s been on a “listening tour.” What’s become clear is that many faculty and staff members have been doing more with less and are downright exhausted.
“Part of why we’re exhausted is because we’ve been living through perennial austerity,” he said, citing continued budgetary belt-tightening amid shrinking state funding for higher education.
“Could we paint a picture together,” he asked, “where in 10 years, Berkeley has reached a state that we would all describe as financial strength, or even, if you just push it further, financial thriving?”
Lyons said he believes it’s possible, and in a way that is in line with Berkeley’s core values.
No private university educates at our scale. No public university researches at our quality.
Chancellor Rich Lyons
Following the successful completion of a capital campaign that raised more than $7 billion under former Chancellor Carol Christ, Lyons said he is increasingly working with donors to find ways forfuture contributions to help pay for core campus operations, from libraries and research in the humanities to doctoral students and deferred maintenance.
And citing recent data from PitchBook that ranked Berkeley as the top university in the world in 2024 for generating startups, Lyons sketched a future where Berkeley’s share of equity generated from those startups could exponentially increase campus funding in ways seldom discussed a decade ago.
“This is going to be a steady-state engine,” he said. “No private university educates at our scale. No public university researches at our quality. Berkeley is not just outstanding, it is unique.”
Cal Athletics could also see significant changes to its funding structure. Lyons said he intends to pursue opportunities to make top sports, like men’s football and basketball, “self-supporting.” That’s in addition to seeking endowments for other sports, similar to the recent $23 million gift that will fully endow the men’s and women’s golf teams.
Lyons also fielded questions from audience members. Regarding this week’s announcement that U.S. News and World Report ranked Berkeley the No. 2 public school in the country, Lyons pointed to multiple other rankings in recent months that have put Berkeley on top, including from The Wall Street Journal, PitchBook and Forbes.
On the topic of protests, Lyons stressed Berkeley’s deep history of encouraging free speech and said it is incumbent on the campus to be consistent in how it enforces existing rules. On Berkeley’s underrepresentation of Black students and other groups, he said he’s evaluating opportunities to get more admitted students to say “yes” when offered a slot.
“People have to want to come here. Belonging needs to feel real,” he said. “… We’re getting better, and we’ve got to keep getting better.”
As for his living arrangements, Lyons and his wife are in the process of moving into University House on the north side of campus with their dog, Winston.
“We want to be all in,” he said. “We want to be present.”