Berkeleyan
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Cal Day crowds typically arrive early and stay late. (Peg Skorpinski photo) |
Fun and enlightenment for 35,000 will be the order of the day
Cal Day, the campus’s annual open house, is April 12
| 19 March 2008
Where on earth can you pet a tuco-tuco, check out a student-built solar race car, get a lesson in democracy from the Simpsons, hear a live performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, or talk to a real, live mathematician — all in the same day?
Nowhere else but Berkeley — on Saturday, April 12, this year’s Cal Day.
For just one day each spring, the entire campus throws open its doors, brings out all its tricks, and stages hundreds of activities designed to show off the university’s stuff to prospective students and their parents, friends, kid brothers and sisters, as well as the general public.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., more than 300 creative, academic, scientific, athletic, and scholarly events will bring Berkeley’s course catalog and extracurricular offerings to life all over campus. The annual open house is expected to attract more than 35,000 visitors eager to see what we have to offer and to meet our faculty, staff, and students.
The energetic will be able to make their own ceramics and rock paintings, play electronic games invented by students, and hunt for hidden treasures with their own GPS device. The more reflective can take in any number of lectures and symposia offering a faculty perspective on issues of the day. And green-minded visitors can take a 30-minute tour of environmentally friendly housing or learn a simple student-devised method of treating polluted water using only what’s on hand.
Performances throughout the day will cover all the lively arts, from modern dance and ballet to taiko drumming and electronic music. There will also be a two-hour performance of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the Stephen Sondheim musical comedy.
And for the sports-minded, Cal’s vaunted football, track and field, tennis, and softball teams will be in action.
For more information, visit calday.berkeley.edu. Highlights of this year’s Cal Day are already listed there, and a complete program of events will be posted this week.