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Viewpoint:
Alter the mindset: see campus in regional context
By Robert C. Spear, Chairman of the Academic Senate The notion
of increasing enrollment at Berkeley by roughly 10 percent over the coming
decade is not initially an appealing idea, whether you are faculty, staff,
student or Berkeley resident.
Providing
classroom and research space is already a challenge in the face of seismic
reality; current students have great difficulty in finding adequate housing;
the staff is stretched thin; and the concerns of Berkeley residents over
current adjustments in our facilities at the margins are a matter of daily
news.
On the other
hand, Berkeley is an integral part of the greatest system of public tertiary
education in the world, and we share the university's longstanding commitment
to provide a quality education to the best of California's high school
graduates. So the question is not if we should accept our fair share of
Tidal Wave II, but how to do so without compromising the quality of the
educational experience for the students nor the quality of life for the
rest of us.
Put more
positively, the issue is how to turn obligation into opportunity for us
all. This is not a challenge that will be solved by any part of our community
acting independently, but in little pieces welded into a coherent whole
by the goodwill and cooperation of many constituencies.
There is
a great deal of planning and thought going into these issues on the part
of the campus administration. The faculty is only now beginning to ponder
the implications at the level of departments and schools. I believe these
efforts will be significantly aided if we can alter our traditional mindset
that the Berkeley experience occurs between Bancroft and Hearst and Oxford
and Gayley Road. While that will always be the heart of our campus, we
need to think of Berkeley operationally -- as well as intellectually --
as a national and international enterprise. Certainly we need to think
of our physical presence in a regional rather than local context.
An invigorated
and expanded education abroad program, new opportunities for students
in San Francisco, and a re-evaluation of the utilization of our space
and facilities at a different spatial and temporal scale are examples
of options being considered. The situation definitely calls for creativity
and innovation, as well as cooperation and collaboration, as we cope with
this new challenge.
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