History of the University of California, Berkeley
In 1866, the College of California, a private institution in Oakland founded by Andover and Yale alumnus Henry Durant, purchased the land that comprises the current Berkeley campus, and the State of California established an agricultural, mining, and mechanical arts college, which existed only as a legal entity to secure federal funds under the Morrill Act.
Signed by President Lincoln in 1862, the Morrill Act provided for the capitalization of public universities by federal land grant.
[1] The Organic Act — also known as the Dwinelle Bill, named after its principal author, Assemblyman John W. Dwinelle — stated that the "University shall have for its design, to provide instruction and thorough and complete education in all departments of science, literature and art, industrial and professional pursuits, and general education, and also special courses of instruction in preparation for the professions".
[14] Financed by a bequest from California land baron James Lick, the university's first research facility, an observatory on Mount Hamilton, began operations in 1888.
Berkeley's reputation grew as President Wheeler succeeded in attracting renowned faculty to the campus and procuring research and scholarship funds.
Prior to taking office, Sproul took a six-month tour of other universities and colleges to study their educational and administrative methods and to establish connections through which he could draw talented faculty in the future.
[20] As a land-grant university subject to the Morrill Act of 1862, male undergraduates were required to serve two hours per week for four years being trained in tactics, dismounted drill, marksmanship, camp duty, military engineering, and fortifications.
It is very much to be hoped that the War Department will establish permanently the policy of offering such appointments to the graduates of each year who show the highest ability in military pursuits."
[21][22][23] During World War II, Ernest Orlando Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory in the hills above Berkeley began to contract with the U.S. Army to develop the atomic bomb, which would involve Berkeley's cutting-edge research in nuclear physics, including Glenn Seaborg's then-secret discovery of plutonium (Room 307 of Gilman Hall, where Seaborg discovered plutonium, would later be a National Historic Landmark).
Former secretary of defense Robert McNamara and former Army chief of staff Frederick C. Weyand were both graduates of Berkeley's ROTC program.
Several faculty members, including eminent comparative psychologist Edward C. Tolman, objected to the oath requirement and were dismissed; ten years passed before they were reinstated with back pay.
The Regents, acting on the recommendation of Chancellor Glenn T. Seaborg and President Clark Kerr, authorized the formation of the Space Sciences Laboratory in 1959.
Located in the Berkeley Hills overlooking the central campus, the Space Sciences Laboratory would go on to make important scientific contributions to many NASA programs.
[36] By tradition and given its proximity to the highly-trafficked main entrance to the university, Sproul Plaza had been, and continues to be, an area for public speeches and similar activities, much like Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park.
On October 1, 1964, Jack Weinberg, who the previous year had graduated magna cum laude from Berkeley with a degree in mathematics, was arrested while manning a Campus CORE booth in Sproul Plaza, prompting a series of student-led acts of formal remonstrance and civil disobedience that ultimately gave rise to the Free Speech Movement.
A grassroots effort by students and residents turned it into a community park, but after a few weeks, the university decided to reclaim control over the property.
California governor Ronald Reagan—who had promised during his gubernatorial election campaign that he would address the so-called unruliness at Berkeley and other university campuses—called in National Guard troops, and the violence that followed resulted in over a dozen hospitalizations and the death of one student.
[50] Plans to renovate Memorial Stadium in a way that would eliminate a view of the field from the surrounding hills also have encountered opposition from alumni and others who have regularly watched Cal football games for free.
[52] As state funding for higher education declines, Berkeley has increasingly turned to private sources to maintain basic research programs.
The deal has garnered criticism from some students and faculty who claim the agreement was negotiated in secret, and that it threatens Berkeley's reputation as an autonomous and democratic institution of higher learning.
[57] Berkeley faculty and graduate students will aid BP scientists in designing and implementing genetically modified plants and microbes which can be used in the Bio-fuel industry.
The deal is controversial among some Berkeley faculty, with some professors including Ignacio Chapela and Miguel Altieri who claim that the project will displace farmland needed for food crops in poor nations and replace them with patented crops owned by multinational corporations, and others including Randy Schekman speaking out in support of the deal.
[59] In March 2007 the UC Regents, who signed the deal, voted to build a new research facility to house the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), BP's chosen name for the project.
