News

Jennifer A. Chatman has been selected to serve as interim dean of Haas School of Business starting August 1, 2024.

Dear Campus Community,

We are pleased to announce that, after a successful international search, Sharon A. Bentley has been selected to serve as the new dean of the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science. Professor Bentley is currently professor of optometry, deputy dean of the Faculty of Health and director of the Centre for Vision and Eye Research at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. She will join the UC Berkeley community on February 3, 2025. 

The search for the next dean of the Division of Biological Sciences is ongoing; we remain optimistic that we will be able to share news regarding the dean search in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we are grateful to Senior Associate Dean Richard M. Harland, who has graciously agreed to step into the dean role on an interim basis effective July 1, 2024.

Michael Lu has been reappointed as dean of the School of Public Health for a second five-year term, effective July 1, 2024.

We are very pleased to announce that, after a comprehensive national search, Eric T. Meyer has been selected to serve as the new dean of the School of Information. Dean Meyer is currently dean of the School of Information at University of Texas, Austin, where he has been for the past six years. He will be joining the UC Berkeley community in his new role on August 1, 2024.

Ann Harrison will be stepping down as the dean of the Haas School of Business on July 31, 2024. She will transition to serve on the Haas faculty on a part-time basis, which will allow her to spend more time with her family, who have relocated, and to focus on her research.

As the spring term draws to an end, it is important to acknowledge the considerable stress so many in our community feel. It has been an extraordinarily challenging period across the globe and here at home.

Lisa García Bedolla has been reappointed as vice provost for graduate studies and dean of the Graduate Division for a second five-year term, beginning July 1, 2024.

Due to a power outage, classroom instruction was disrupted for many in-person classes in affected buildings throughout yesterday afternoon and evening. The university’s response teams acted quickly and we are back to normal operations today. We are grateful to your work supporting the education of our students and the mission of our campus and appreciate the challenges disruptions can cause for students and instructors.

Raka Ray has been reappointed as dean of the Social Sciences Division for a second five-year term, beginning July 1, 2024.

We write to you today with great sadness, concern, and dismay in the wake of an incident on our campus last night, an incident that violated not only our rules, but also some of our most fundamental values. Our purpose is not just to inform our community about what happened. We are writing with the hope that we can and will come together in defense of our Principles of Community that safeguard free speech, diversity of perspective, and the ties that bind this community together.

Suzanne L. Wones has been selected as our next university librarian, pending final formal Regental approval. Suzanne joins us from Harvard University, where she currently serves as the associate university librarian for discovery and access. Her first day at Berkeley will be July 1, 2024.

We have both ethical and legal obligations to provide accommodations and other supportive measures to our students. We call your attention to important campus policies and guidelines concerning academic accommodations for religious observance, illness, disability, hardship, and other matters.

As 2023 ends, I want to take this opportunity to say how grateful I am for all that you do on behalf of UC Berkeley. The brilliance of your research, your dedication to our students, and your commitment to the institution make us the world’s premier public university. This year had its challenges, testing us in many ways, but, as I have come to expect after 35 years at Berkeley, you rose to the occasion.

Tracy Schroeder has accepted our offer to become Berkeley’s next Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer.

Based on input received from students affected, in various ways, by the violence in Gaza and Israel, I recently sent a CalMessage to all instructors asking them to be understanding of the considerable stress and suffering many of you are experiencing. In particular, I asked instructors to “assess requests for academic flexibility with compassion, generosity, and from a mindset of what is best for the student.”

The Chancellor, I, and other campus administrators have been hearing from and meeting with representatives of the Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Palestinian, and other communities on campus. Common to those discussions was the high level of fear, anxiety, and loss that members of those communities have suffered and are suffering.

Susan Stone has agreed to serve as interim dean of the School of Social Welfare for the 2024–25 academic year. Her appointment will be effective as of July 1, 2024.