I began my career at Berkeley in 1970, when the campus was mostly white and the faculty almost entirely male. Over the next few decades, I watched the institution transform into a place where students of every background and ethnicity were accepted and succeeded, and where women joined the ranks of the faculty in ever-growing numbers. At one point, Berkeley had the most diverse student body in the University of California system, contributing enormously to our excellence and vibrancy.
For the past 25 years, however, we have struggled to maintain such progress… and today Berkeley has the lowest proportion of underrepresented minority students among UC’s undergraduate campuses. We have a lower proportion of African Americans now than we did in the 1990s. While the proportion of Latinx students has grown, it isn’t keeping pace with the significant growth of Latinx high school graduates in California. Just 1 percent of our students are Native American.
To be sure, the dictates of Proposition 209 — which passed in 1996 and prohibits decisions in admissions and hiring based on race, ethnicity, or gender — have affected our demographics. But we can’t use that as an excuse. For us to fulfill our educational mission, we must ensure that our students encounter a range of thoughts and perspectives. For us to confidently prepare young people to be both good citizens and successful professionals, we must help them learn to thrive in a multicultural world. For us to meet our responsibilities as a leading public university in an increasingly diverse state, we must aim to match our demographics more closely to those of California.
The need to advance diversity on the Berkeley campus — not only in regard to race and ethnicity, but also disability, intellectual interest, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, geographical origin, and religious and ideological beliefs — is a central goal of both mine and of our recently completed strategic plan. Last fall, we launched the Undergraduate Student Diversity Project, a major effort to help diversify our student body and improve the experience for those who have been historically underrepresented or marginalized in higher education. The project is composed of five elements:
- Strengthening programs and services that build up our pipeline of UC-qualified K-12Â students from underrepresented populations;
- Revising our outreach approach;
- Ensuring that our admissions process is free from discriminatory elements that lead to inequitable admission rates across various populations;
- Developing programs aimed at inspiring admitted students from underrepresented backgrounds to choose Berkeley; and
- Improving our campus climate. All other efforts will be wasted if we cannot foster a welcoming, supportive, and respectful culture that sustains a sense of belonging for all.
While this project will aim to include voices from all over the university, I know that meaningful, lasting cultural and organizational change cannot be achieved solely through administrative policymaking. We must tap into the wisdom, experience, and creativity of our whole community, including you. Please reach out to me, or visit strategicplan.berkeley.edu to get involved. Just as Berkeley’s excellence depends upon the diversity of its community members, experiences, and perspectives, so too do our efforts to advance diversity itself.
