News

It is with great sadness that I write to share the news that Chief Campus Counsel Christopher M. Patti was involved in a fatal accident early this Sunday while bicycling in Sonoma County.

As you may be aware, on Sunday, Aug. 27, from 1 to 5 p.m., a demonstration called “No to Marxism in America” is scheduled to take place at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, three blocks west of campus. There also is planned demonstration activity the day prior, on Saturday, Aug. 26, in San Francisco.

This fall, the issue of free speech will once more engage our community in powerful and complex ways. Events in Charlottesville, with their racism, bigotry, violence and mayhem, make the issue of free speech even more tense. The law is very clear; public institutions like UC Berkeley must permit speakers invited in accordance with campus policies to speak, without discrimination in regard to point of view. The United States has the strongest free speech protections of any liberal democracy; the First Amendment protects even speech that most of us would find hateful, abhorrent and odious, and the courts have consistently upheld these protections.

J. Keith Gilless will step down as dean of College of Natural Resources (CNR) and return to his full-time faculty position at the end of the 2017-18 academic year.

The beginning of the school year is always a magical time for me – a blank sheet of paper, the first page of a novel. You feel the excitement of all the beginnings that surround you – new students embarking on their college or graduate school years, new faculty beginning their Berkeley careers. It was in my first year as a faculty member here that I fell in love with Berkeley – a love that still animates me now.

I, like so many of you, am horrified by what occurred in Virginia over the weekend. Today, I join with millions of others to condemn the reprehensible acts of the racist groups that brought violence and mayhem to Charlottesville and to the University of Virginia campus.

Professor G. Steve Martin has agreed to serve as Interim Vice Chancellor for Research

It is with decidedly mixed emotions that I write to share the news that Rich Lyons will be stepping down as dean of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, just under a year from now, in June 2018.

I have just completed making the budget decisions for our 2017-2018 budget. Divisions (schools, colleges, administrative units) have received their letters and we will post the decisions on line at cfo.berkeley.edu (link is external), along with a FAQ (link is external) that we hope will answer any questions.

Professor Oscar Dubón, Jr. will be Berkeley’s next Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion (VCEI).

We wish to thank the members of the Task Force on Intercollegiate Athletics (TFIA) for their diligence and hard work on this most complicated of subjects. The values, principles, findings, and recommendations enunciated in the report are important; campus leadership will now carefully consider them. While the financial challenges facing the campus and Cal Athletics are urgent, the issues are complex, and we must be deliberate in making our decisions.

Professor of Linguistics Sharon Inkelas has been named the Special Faculty Advisor to the Chancellor on Sexual Violence/Sexual Harassment for a three-year term, beginning on July 24, 2017.

Calling for nominations for the new position of Vice Chancellor for Administration (VC-A).

Rosemarie Rae, campus Chief Financial Officer, has been approved by UC President Janet Napolitano to serve in the role of Vice Chancellor – Chief Financial Officer.

Announcing the appointment of Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences David Culler as Interim Dean for the newly created Division of Data Sciences.

Erwin Chemerinsky has been appointed to be the next Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law.