NEWS RELEASE, 4/10/97 Lectures, sports and celebrations to be found April 19 at UC Berkeley's Cal Day, the campus's popular free open house

by Marie Felde

Berkeley -- Visitors can experience a day in the life of UC Berkeley, one of the nation's top research universities, when the campus hosts its annual open house, Cal Day, on Saturday, April 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cal Day showcases the wide spectrum of activity -- from compelling and far-reaching scholarship to arts and music and sports -- that makes the University of California at Berkeley a Bay Area gem and a national education leader. Nearly everything, including parking and museum admissions, is free. The centerpiece of Cal Day is the Charter Anniversary Celebration marking the founding of the University of California. This year it offers a special treat -- an address by Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, the campus's highly popular and influential leader who will be stepping down on June 30 after seven years at the helm. The Charter Celebration features traditional university music and a colorful academic procession replete with banners and regalia. It will be held outdoors in Dwinelle Plaza beginning at 11 a.m. Tien will be joined by Harold T. Shapiro, president of Princeton University; Peter E. Haas, 1996 Alumnus of the Year; and the Haas International Award winner, Venkataram Ramakrishna, director of urban health education in Bangalore, India. Elsewhere and all-day long, UC Berkeley faculty, students and staff host a wide range of fun and provocative activities. Last year, more than 30,000 people attended Cal Day and it has become the campus's biggest annual event. This is CyberSemeter '97 at Cal and high tech will be featured at Cal Day. For example, Internet junkies can control a remote robot over the World Wide Web. A special web site, a Cal Day Scrapbook, is being created for the day with news and photos of Cal Day events posted as they happen. The campus's web site is www.berkeley.edu. Dozens of lectures presented by the campus's expert faculty will explore compelling social issues and scientific discoveries. Professor Bruce Ames will discuss "Understanding the Causes of Aging and Cancer" while Professor Geoff Marcy speaks on recent discoveries of new planets and Professor John Taylor prepares a variety of savory mushrooms as part of his lecture on edible fungi. Sports fans can watch the football team scrimmage at Memorial Stadium then meet the players and new head coach Tom Holmoe or try out their own rock climbing skills with free trials at Cal Adventure's climbing wall. For children, storytellers from the Bay Area will offer tales of whimsy and intrigue at the Celebration of Children's Literature and they can build intelligent robots with Legos at the College of Engineering. Also among the day's activities is the 23rd Annual Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival. And if that's not enough, all campus museums, including the Lawrence Hall of Science, will be open with free admission. Special tours are scheduled for the Berkeley Art Museum; the Botanical Garden's world-renowned collection of exotic plants are on display with many currently in bloom and the mysterious world of bugs is featured at the Essig Museum of Entomology. Other special events include a walking tour of the campus portion of the Hayward Fault, International House's SpringFest, a rare look at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source, and workshops and tours for new and prospective UC Berkeley students. Thirty-minute trolley tours of the campus, with guides providing highlights of campus life, architecture and history, will be offered free throughout the day. Guests can eat at a number of campus restaurants and outdoor grills A program with a complete listing of all activities will be available at campus entrances on the day of the event. Limited free parking is available. Visitors are encouraged to take public transportation. The campus is easily reached by both AC Transit and is just one block from the Berkeley BART Station. Free shuttles will be available to take visitors from the BART station to various campus locations. Shuttles are also available to take visitors up to the Lawrence Hall of Science and Botanical Garden. For more information, call (510) 642-5215, or visit the Cal Day web site at http://www.urel.berkeley.edu/calday.