News

We encourage you to visit the Graduate Student Diversity Task Force’s implementation webpage to review their preliminary recommendations and provide feedback.

The Report from the Fall 2020 Instructional Planning and Policy Task Force, which is now posted on the Academic Senate website.

After seven years at the helm of Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Edward Wasserman has announced that he will be stepping down as dean and rejoining the faculty full-time as a professor in media ethics. We are delighted to announce that Professor Geeta Anand has agreed to serve as interim Dean of Berkeley Journalism beginning July 1, 2020.

Juneteenth (June 19, 2020) will be a day of remembrance for UC Berkeley.

The University of California has reached a transformative open access agreement with Springer Nature, the world’s second-largest academic publisher.

Campus has formulated the a pair of policies for instruction during Summer Sessions and the Fall Semester.

UC President Janet Napolitano will propose to the Board of Regents this week that there be a systemwide freeze on the salaries of non-represented staff and faculty for fiscal year 2021.

Update on our ongoing planning for fall semester operations

May 5 is #GivingTuesdayNow, a new global day of giving in response to the unprecedented needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Similar to last year, the spring 2020 final exam period (Monday, May 11 to Friday, May 15) falls during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. We would like to remind you of the campus policies that outline the rights and responsibilities of both faculty and students with respect to course conflicts and accommodations of all types.

UC Berkeley is providing each employee who works on the campus with a face covering or mask. Unless an employee already has face coverings or masks or has been directed by their supervisor to use their own department’s supply or another supply of masks, Environment, Health & Safety officials will offer masks from a limited stock of surgical masks readily on hand. The campus will move to providing cloth face coverings when the cloth face coverings purchased arrive later this month.

In response to concerns about proctoring of examinations under shelter-in-place orders and academic misconduct, the Provost convened a working group at the beginning of April. The 21 members of the working group, consisting of faculty and staff from a wide range of disciplines, were charged with examining strategies for remote exams, developing principles for procuring remote proctoring services, and assessing products for our campus.

We are extending the deadline to drop or withdraw from most Summer Sessions courses and still receive a refund for various fees, a move that we hope will provide students with greater flexibility.

An update, as well as additional information that we are using to further understand and shape the campus budget for the remainder of this fiscal year, for FY 2021, and beyond.

Regarding some important issues that have emerged as we all adapt to our new instructional circumstances: copyright of instructional materials and class climate.