Cal Day will offer free, close-up look at campus for thousands of visitors
BERKELEY – Cal Day, the University of California, Berkeley's annual open house, will be held this year on Saturday, April 12, and the campus expects to welcome an anticipated 30,000 visitors for hundreds of free activities - arts and cultural events, tours, faculty lectures, athletic competitions and more.
Among the highlights this year will be an opportunity to hear former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass read his poetry, listen to a lecture by Nobel Prize economist George Akerlof, see original Mark Twain manuscripts and get the first glimpse of the 2003 Cal Golden Bears football team at a scrimmage in Memorial Stadium.
"Cal Day is always great fun and, for us, it is a wonderful opportunity to share the richness of our campus with the public," said Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl. "We encourage everyone to join us on Cal Day and experience first-hand why Californians can be justifiably proud of their extraordinary system of public higher education."
Cal Day offers the public a chance to view, in one special day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., campus museum collections and laboratories usually open just to researchers. "You'd never be able to see or do a lot of this otherwise," said Diana Musto, Cal Day coordinator at UC Berkeley's Office of Public Affairs, which manages the event. "And there is something for everyone."
Prospective college students of any age can drop by Dwinelle Plaza for the all-day "Kindergarten to College" resource fair, organized to help students and their families prepare for college.
Motorized cable cars will be traveling around campus for a 30-minute tour as student guides point out history and highlights. Visitors will be able to hop off to explore places along the way, including UC Berkeley museums, which offer free admission on Cal Day.
At the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, from 2 p.m.-3 p.m., Professor Andrew Stewart, curator of the Hearst Museum Greek and Roman Archaeology Collections, will lecture about the ancient Mediterranean world and invite visitors to view classical antiquities from one of the museum's founding collections.
Cal Day attendees can see the full-sized cast of a T. Rex and tour the Museum of Paleontology. They may also explore the libraries and see original Mark Twain manuscripts and rare footage of Twain himself in an event hosted by experts from the Mark Twain Project.
From 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., Undergraduate Nutritional Sciences students will show kids how to make good food choices in a session, "You Are What You Eat." Children and adults will learn what happens after they chew and swallow their food and what kinds of food will keep them healthy and strong.
Sporting events include skate boarding clinics and wall climbs, as well as a football scrimmage by the 2003 Golden Bear team at 11 a.m. at Memorial Stadium and UC Berkeley's women's water polo team will face rival Stanford University at Spieker Aquatics Complex from 12 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
To get a taste of college life, residence halls and student facilities will be open for tours between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Newly admitted students and their families are invited to hear Chancellor Berdahl welcome them to Cal Day at the Haas Pavilion at 8:30 a.m. and to attend information sessions on academic programs, financial aid, housing and other campus services.
Faculty lectures are ongoing all day. Scheduled highlights include:
- Literary Giants Read from their Greatest Works. Hear Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States, and esteemed writer Professor Ron Loewinsohn read from their collective works. 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m., 312 Wheeler Hall.
- Affirmative Action and Social Science Evidence. Affirmative action is in part an issue of national values. Yet, social scientific research bearing on the existence of inequality and on the workings of affirmative action is worthy of consideration as well. What does the scholarly evidence say about the magnitude of inequality in the United States? What have social scientists learned in analyzing the operation of affirmative action? Professor Samuel Lucas. 11 a.m.-12 p.m., 145 Dwinelle Hall.
- Artificial Joints and Prosthetic Devices: How Artificial Are They? Discover how replacement tissues, joints and other biological mechanisms are engineered. Visit the lab to see the materials used to make them, and how engineers are making them better. Professor Lisa Pruitt. 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. 2121 Etchaverry Hall.
Parking for Cal Day is free, but limited. Free shuttles will run all day between downtown Berkeley BART and campus attractions. For a more complete schedule of Cal Day events, visit http://www.berkeley.edu/calday/. That site includes a search engine for visitors to research what to see and do at specific times on April 12 and a slide show from last year's event.