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By Russell Schoch chancellor Robert M. Berdahl says that if he had the Berkeley faculty and the up-to-date Texas campus, he would have the best of all possible worlds. Instead, when he took over the top post at Berkeley in the summer of 1997, he found a physical infrastructure in tatters, as well as a library that was falling in national rankings and in need of swift repair. “Many a person would have quit then and there,” says longtime Berkeley political science professor Todd LaPorte. “But Bob Berdahl was a terrific citizen for this campus; he stayed on and persevered.” As he prepares to leave office in June, Berdahl considers overcoming those challenges his most significant achievement as chancellor. He initiated the SAFER program, a three-quarters of a billion dollar effort to make the campus seismically safe, and he infused enough funds into the library to move it back into the top stacks (it was number 3, behind Harvard and Yale, in a recent ranking). “He’s kind of a library creature,” notes University Librarian Tom Leonard, referring to Berdahl’s delight in books and scholarship. “He responded to faculty and students, who were aware of the terrible deterioration of the library following the budget crisis of the early 1990s, and he made the library his top priority when he came in.” Such behind-the-scenes actions mirror this chancellor’s style--quiet, steady, and resolved. A “Midwestern hardboy” is the way Berdahl’s long-time friend and Berkeley history professor Tom Brady describes him. Berdahl, who was born in South Dakota and seriously considered the ministry before Former University of Texas president and outgoing Berkeley becoming an academic, was a vice chancellor of the University of Illinois when Brady first heard the term. “It means someone who’s soft on the outside--warm, friendly, congenial--but hard on the inside,” he says. “Someone who’s very appealing but can’t be pushed around.” “He’s a man of enormous integrity,” agrees Robert Post, former Morrison Professor of Law at Boalt Hall and now a law professor at Yale. “His academic values are strong, and he made it very clear that we shouldn’t compromise the academic integrity of the campus in the face of political pressures.” Post draws a distinction between former chancellor Chang-lin Tien as a “public persona” and Berdahl
Berdahl also will be remembered for launching the Health Sciences Initiative at Berkeley, undertaking construction of a new Stanley Hall to help accommodate the initiative, and for his help in raising a billion and a half dollars for the campus during his tenure. He also oversaw both an academic strategic plan and an academic master plan to guide the campus well into the 21st century. Last September, the chancellor surprised the campus by announcing his resignation at the end of the spring semester. After five years as president of Texas and seven years as Berkeley chancellor, Berdahl says it’s time for him to move on. Following a year’s sabbatical, he plans to return to the campus to teach. In a recent interview, the chancellor reflected on his time at Berkeley. Looking ahead, the chancellor worries that “everything Berkeley has achieved over the past half century as a university could be lost within a half decade” because of a fundamental shift that has swept across higher education: the lack of public support. Berkeley has moved from being a state-supported institution to a state-assisted one, to--as one professor recently put it--a state-located institution. “Forty years ago,” Berdahl says, “the vision of Clark Kerr was that the University of California would be a public institution, supported by the public for the benefit of the public. And now it’s a public institution partially supported by the public, seen as for the benefit of the individuals who attend it--not for the public as a whole. And that’s a sea change in public attitudes.” What has brought this about? “I think the political landscape has changed,” Berdahl says. “People have been persuaded by their leaders that any money they pay in taxes is their money, and the government has no legitimate claim to it. You can get elected in this country with no other public policy than to cut taxes. That does not seem to me to be the nature of a civilized society.” Talking about support means talking about alumni. The chancellor says he was surprised upon his arrival by the enthusiasm of alumni for their alma mater. “Berkeley has an image, from the outside, of being a cool, laid-back institution that doesn’t really get riled up about, for instance, athletics,” he says. “But I found a tremendous alumni enthusiasm and support for intercollegiate athletics here. There isn’t the level of pressure to win here as there was at Texas. But alumni are very passionate about this place.” Berdahl picked Steve Gladstone to be athletic director and approved the appointment of Jeff Tedford as football coach two years ago. “I think we have a value system in place in our athletic program now, as well as the capacity to win,” the chancellor says. He hopes that excitement over athletics will translate into other kinds of support. “The alumni will have to come forward, as they do at private universities, with a much greater level of generosity if we are to remain first rate,” he says. “We’re not doing too badly as a public university--15 percent of our alumni give to the campus. But compare that to an average of over 50 percent at private universities, and we realize that we need to do more.” What about commercial support, like the recently concluded five-year agreement with Novartis? “I think there’s been far too much hue and cry about the Novartis agreement--part of it fostered by this magazine,” the chancellor says, with a pointed look. “As far as I’m concerned, there’s been probably no better-managed agreement than the Novartis one. The people who are upset by it are upset about the wrong thing. The privatization of higher education is not being driven by commercial interests but by the abdication of public interest in public education. And I think this ultimately could have a tremendously adverse effect on our society.” The chancellor therefore strongly endorses a new program from the CAA--called “Cal Advocacy”--which aims to help alumni and friends communicate effectively, via e-mail, with the state’s key political figures. “The Alumni Association’s new electronic advocacy program is just the sort of movement that could help turn around the decline in public support,” Berdahl says. (For more information on the new campaign, which will focus first on the governor’s budget for next year, visit www.CalAdvocacy.berkeley.edu). Were there other surprises for the chancellor at Berkeley? “Something that shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but did, was the intensity of the student activists on this campus,” Berdahl says. “There were three demonstrations taking place during my inauguration. Nobody paid much attention; they just sort of shrugged and said, ‘That’s Berkeley.’” He recalls a meeting of the Berkeley Foundation’s board of directors during demonstrations against him over ethnic studies. A member of the board mentioned that her daughter, a current student, was protesting in front of the meeting. “Why on earth is she out there?” the chancellor asked. “Well,” the Board member replied, “she knows that’s what I did when I was a student, and she wants to have the Berkeley experience.” “That takes a little getting used to,” Berdahl says, with a wry smile. What advice would he give his successor? The chancellor hesitates to be specific--in public, at least--but says the best advice he received when he began administration work was: Never forget that you’re a faculty member. “I think that’s the best advice that anybody could have coming here, because Berkeley is a faculty-driven culture. The faculty at Berkeley in large part accounts for the excellence of this campus.” When asked about the best moments he’s experienced here, Berdahl responds: “The highs come most every day because this is such a remarkable place.” He pauses a moment and then concludes: “It’s been a great thrill and privilege to be chancellor at Berkeley. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think that such a privilege would come to a kid from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.” |
 April 2004
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