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Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau Chancellor Birgeneau
Visits School of Education
On March 4, 2005 Berkeley’s new Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau (pronounced BUR-zhuh-no) paid his first official visit to the Graduate School of Education. Unaccompanied by an entourage, the Chancellor merely walked by himself from his nearby residence at University House to Tolman Hall, where he first spoke privately with Dean P. David Pearson. Dean Pearson briefed the Chancellor on the School. The next event was a session with the School’s representative Policy Committee.At an open meeting with GSE faculty, students, and staff, Chancellor Birgeneau shared his own experiences at two very different campuses, MIT and the University of Toronto. At MIT, where Birgeneau was dean of science, few faculty had any practical knowledge of K–12 education and regarded it as a problem to be “solved.” Toronto, where Birgeneau was president of the University, was at the other end of the spectrum. Through the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), that university has a huge professional education program with over a thousand students. “Here at Berkeley,” said Chancellor Birgeneau, “we have an ideal mix of research and credential students.” In fact those two groups are almost equal in number in the GSE.
Chancellor Birgeneau’s opening remarks to the School were brief. “I’m primarily here to listen,” he said, and listen he did, as several staff, students, and faculty asked questions and offered comments.
To a question on low staff salaries, Chancellor Birgeneau sympathized. “I’m impressed with the loyalty and commitment of the staff at UC Berkeley,” he said. “I feel strongly that staff should have an increase in salary. I hope we can make some progress on this.”
Professor Norton Grubb pointed out that increases in UC funding coupled with decreases in K–12 funds do not necessarily serve the university’s interest. “It serves our ends to have funding for K–12,” said Grubb, since those are the schools that prepare our future students.
On the question of campus diversity, Chancellor Birgeneau said, “We have to prepare to test the limits of [Proposition] 209,” which bars the use of race as a factor in admissions. “In the long run, we need to reverse 209.”
Professors Bernard Gifford and David Stern discussed admissions with the chancellor, with Gifford advocating that the University stop giving extra weight to AP courses, since their availability is closely correlated with race and income. Stern noted that a systemwide committee has been studying this issue and is about to make a recommendation.
Overall, Chancellor Birgeneau underlined the importance of education: “I’m an educator—I left the lab on purpose [to teach]. That’s why all of us are here, because we’re people committed to education.”
return to BEL Spring 2005 contents return to GSE publications
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