 Good afternoon. I'm Dan Moguloff from the campus office of communications and public affairs and Super thrilled and honored to have our Chancellor Carol Christ with us for this semester-ending Campus conversation. So glad you could join us Again just to reiterate there are index cards on your chairs if you have a question now that you know You want to ask the Chancellor great time to fill out the card hold it up be collected but also totally also totally fine to do that in the course of the conversation and So without further ado Carol perhaps a few words about where we are and where we're headed. I'd like it So I first of all I wanted to start with a big. Thank you. I think that Cal has the most talented imaginative Dedicated staff in the world and I am conscious every single day of all the work you do So I want to thank all of you for the work you do I was down at facilities this morning thanking them particularly for their work and the power outage But just generally for all of the often unseen work that keeps this campus going And so I want to thank all of you Begin with news The first is a little bit old news, but I don't think it can bear too much repeating which is that the budget is balanced We actually have a modest very modest surplus of about 60 60 million dollars I should say it doesn't sound modest to all of you, but in the context of our whole budget it really is modest and But I should say to all of you the budget is precariously balanced That it depends our future financial health depends so much on what The regions and what the state do So first of all we need a consensus Among the regions and then with the legislature about what would be a reasonable set a reasonable philosophy of tuition increases If our major Revenue source never increases that means from year to year We have to make major cuts and so that is perhaps my highest priority as a political issue is to make the case for Modest predictable Regular Tuition increases the regions are going to consider it their January meeting a plan for cohort tuition That means only new students coming in get a tuition increase And the tuition holds the same for that cohort all through their years at at Any of the UC campuses the other thing that matters of course is the states increasing its investment in the portion of our budget that comes from the state so We got to a balanced budget about halfway through through cuts and through Financial discipline in about halfway through growing revenue sources and our Increased diversification and multiplication of sources of revenue is Becoming very robust and that's really exciting and very good for the campus So other news I wish I could be as cheerful about the capital side of our budget as I am about the operating side Rosemary Ray The CFO has said often. I'm absolutely confident. I can solve Berkeley's operating budget problem I cannot solve its capital budget problem and just to lay out the different Aspects of it. We have a two billion dollar deferred maintenance backlog I'm sure you all know what that means And then we have recently reassessed the seismic condition of all the buildings on campus They're rated one through seven with seven being the worst and one being the best The only good news is we have no sevens, but we have seven sixes Which is very poor and we have over 65 So that's a huge challenge for the campus with no clear Revenue stream to do that seismic work We also have gotten to a point where many of our laboratory buildings for STEM science technology engineering mathematics are Not in the shape that they need to be for our research and frankly to compete for faculty With our private peers So we have a real problem in the modernization of our laboratory And then of course there's the huge issue of housing and how few of our students we house and how Much a burden this is for our students who have to live in places that are too expensive too crowded on the very impacted Berkeley Oakland El Cerrito Markets for rentals, so that's really a challenge. Let me tell you a little bit about what we're doing on the capital side First of all our housing projects are moving forward. We have a wonderful wonderful donor developed project its name is now anchor house and indeed will be an anchor for our campus that will be right at the entrance to the campus on the corner of University and Oxford it will be for transfer students. It's such an exciting gift We have another gift that is going to be made to the campus where someone is building us in a part Development building for graduate students in Emeryville, and so that's also an incredibly Incredibly exciting development in January at the regents meeting. We're taking people's park to the regents So that is moving ahead in the planning And I think you all know it's going to be about a quarter of the site will use for permanent Supportive housing for the homeless a quarter of it for a commemorative park our own Walter hood Who just recently won a MacArthur genius award is going to be that doing the park design and about half of it for housing And then there are other things in the hopper too So we're moving as fast as we can for housing the one project that stalled is the upper Hearst project the one That's on the parking lot That's at the top of Hearst there because the city is suing us About the supplemental Environmental impact report that we had to do for that project. We cannot start construction on them project So that's the housing piece of it The campus piece of it is much much more complicated I think of it is like a giant chest gang or kind of Rubik's Cube We have to figure out how we can Strengthen our building seismically and other words do the seismic retrofits build whatever new facilities modernize whatever buildings we need to build and Minimize the number of moves that individual units Need to make So the building that we've set our sights on as the number one Seismic remediation project is Evans Hall That's one of our sixes. I don't think many tears will be shed for Evans We about what we have to do it's the reason we chose Evans as a six and it is the in terms of occupancy The biggest of our buildings that are our sixes and so we have to figure out a place to Put all the people and functions that are in Evans. So the first building we will build Will be a building on what what we're calling the Tolman site, but obviously we'll have another meaning that'll be a data science building and then we will build at the same time a Building that will have classrooms Academic L&S advising Mathematics and We haven't figured out where we're contemplating what the what the best site for that would be and then when we do those two Things then we can take down Evans. We're not going to build a new Evans in its place We'll probably build two smaller buildings, but that's kind of where we're where we're going in the most immediate future We have some those seismic ratings for the six buildings are They mean all kinds of different things for example Moffat Library is a six All it means is it has one pillar that needs reinforcement. That's about a ten million dollar project Not very expensive in the way those things go You know Durant is another six means the Stonework on the front isn't well enough attached to the building so that the seismic ratings mean a whole range of things from buildings that really have to be demolished like Evans and replaced to ones where the retrofit is pretty straightforward and Relatively I say relatively inexpensive there is going to be a bond issue on the State ballot at for the primary election. That's extremely important for our capital planning It's a 15 million dollar bond issue It's nine million for K-12 and two million each for the community how billion billion sorry I'm sure you get used to doing away with the zeros Makes it all seem more manageable And a Billion 15 billion and two billion each for the community colleges CSU and UC and that money will be distributed among the UC's All of our projects or many of our projects will have complex funding Arrangements, we will have of a philanthropic element to many of our buildings A long-term debt element now that our budget is balanced We can take out modest amounts of debt once again and a state funding component as well as a deferred maintenance Component so that's the kind of capital piece in in short Really really exciting news is that we are about to launch a Campaign the public phase of the campaign in which we've been counting for now six years The kickoff is going to be on February 29th 2020. I love it that it's a year that a day that comes once every four years and Our goal is going to be very ambitious for this campaign probably six billion dollars and We will expect to be halfway there by time by the time of a public kickoff and you just keep your You know ears open. We're going to have a lot of exciting announcements about about gifts and Then finally before we turn to Dan's questions and your questions I'm going to talk a bit about diversity This to me is one of the most important priorities. I have it is enormously complex to make progress on First there's a demographic element obviously. I think all of our campus populations Undergraduate student body graduate student body faculty and staff Must become more diverse and we're developing a strategy for each of those groups So there's the demographic element but then there's the experience that students have when they get here and That is going to take the community to solve I'm sure Dan will ask me questions about the Really offensive video that was posted by a student and the way in which it is deeply pained and grieved elements of our community. I think in large part because it's rubbed salt in the wound of The prejudice that some of our communities live with as part of their daily experience So I'm going to be having a set of conversations over the spring semester About our responsibilities to our community and for our community I think that particularly and I said this in my campus message in this world of easy cheap online communication Something offensive that somebody could say in a room Which somebody in the room can say something back and they can argue It becomes With the kind of digital Universe we live in something that's broadcast to millions of people and becomes viral very quickly that's so much harder a problem to solve and The consequences are so much less immediate to the Individual who who does it because they don't have to confront Whoever is in the room with them who may not Agree or may fuck with them or find what they've said deeply hurtful or offensive But let me stop there. I'm sure we'll talk more about this just for those of you in the back There are a number of seats in the front. Yes, don't be afraid come forward. Don't be afraid to sit in the front row Alrighty So I do want to follow up a little bit about the video Almost since the very beginning of your tenure You've talked about the importance you place on the sense of community and a sense of belonging Those from my time when I was in college I don't remember that being a priority and I don't remember that being a value that anybody I think paid a lot of attention to Why is it so important for you? And how does it connect and support the academic connect to and support the academic that's such an interesting question Dan And I think in part At Berkeley is a lot bigger now than it used to be 30% bigger since 2008 and That means it's an even more jostly place than it used to be In addition, it's a much more diverse campus. I think all to the good Than the campus that I joined in 1970 And that means that people come here with very different Experiences different identities different beliefs about the world and these can clash both, you know in classrooms in the social kinds of contexts or online and then Berkeley has become Something of a target as well on Berkeley is one of the few campuses in the United States where you can make the claim That history is happening here and that makes it a really attractive stage For people to come to and make whatever claim they want to make where they think they can get the headline because it's It's at at Berkeley So one of the things that we Say we're teaching our students and I think this goes for any college and university You're you're teaching students how to be in a community and That you probably most of you know, I was at Smith College very different place rural environment, you know About 2,900 students It's a very different thing building community at a small place Than a big place. That's like a city where there are a lot of neighborhoods and so trying to figure out how to do that How to make each of our communities each person in our community? Feel valued feel as if they belong here Seems to me so important and it's also extraordinarily difficult. I Can talk I can put on programs, but finally I'm not capable of creating a community for the 50 or 60,000 people Who make Berkeley their workplace or the place that they study? So it's something that's on all of us To try to figure out how we can make our community a Place everyone really values being in and feels valued It also feels I'm wondering if it feels to you a little bit at the moment a little Sisyphean the whole sort of quest given what's going on in the world beyond campus a era of polarization and anger We're moving into a national election period. We just had a conservative speaker on campus many of those who wanted to attend were subject to Extraordinary verbal abuse and physical harassment What are your concerns and thoughts as we move into what might even be a period of even more sort of heightened tension and friction? I think we're in a in a state of this is hardly an original thought We're but we're in a moment right now Nationally politically is probably worldwide in which people are really testing norms So kinds of things you wouldn't think that you would be able to say people are now Saying trying to say and the fact that the online space is so unaccountable it's held so unaccountable makes it easier and We are this moment of both intense polarization the fact that we're a stage and The fact that this is a time of testing We're it's going to be a trying time. I think for our campus and people's feelings many of them are extremely raw and hurt Didn't want to talk very much about the video itself because I think that the the It's it really was just an occasion for something that's way deeper than some very Misconceived hurtful individual students act but the student talked specifically about blacks about about gay people and about women and I've had many conversations with members of the black community Saying how much this pain them how much it hurt them how much it made them feel they didn't belong here and I've also had conversations, which I really regret. I didn't didn't I didn't say anything about this in The message from gay people who felt this is Obliterating my existence. It is not recognizing me It also took out after women and I've been thinking a lot why I just thought this is some silly incredibly Misconceived Young man's drunken rant Why didn't it affect me and I because I'm older and I'm secure and I'm powerful and I'm white and free to say Doesn't matter to me and it doesn't but that's not true of people who Feel that they exist in a marginalized position and somebody is saying you don't matter You don't count you don't deserve to exist in this community I just have one more question on this one will move on to other subjects and the questions that have come in from the audience One of the things you and I talked about when we were preparing for our conversation today You talk about this perceived gap between our stated values and our actions Unpack that a little bit and maybe share some thoughts about how to close that gap Is it through conversation or are there other things you're thinking about? Yeah, that's a wonderful question because I think all the time about how we're so I talk all the time about how Diversity is one of our central values. We're proud of our diversity at Berkeley but that whole Aspiration is Immediately seems hollow When we have any of a number of incidents not just this one that happened on the campus and people live Particularly people who are members of underrepresented groups live with a sense of Contradiction that we're not Where our words are asserting we aspire to be and that's a huge challenge for the campus and part This is numbers The black students are only 3% of our undergraduate population When I came to Berkeley as a faculty member in 1970 women were 3% of the faculty I know what it feels like to be 3% you feel like they're not very many people like you and And so that the numbers are really a problem But it's also how we all create community that's that's an issue Understood we're gonna move into your questions now and again if things occur to you things you want to ask in the course of the Conversation the cars remain on your chair fill them up hold them up to the first question What are we gonna do with the 60 million dollars? I'm afraid it's probably already spent I mean there are so many priorities that we have I were Enormously understaffed in L. S. And I should say this isn't 60 million continuing dollars. It's 60 million one time dollars We have law the legal expenses all the time. We have emergencies that happen like the power outages So I it's it really is even though it sounds like a lot any human being it Maybe except for Bill Gates or somebody It's just a drop in the bucket in terms of our expenses, which reminds me we're sort of I don't know exactly how many months we're into the You know a new Regime in Sacramento. What's your sense about where we are in terms of the possibility of additional state funding? What's the university's relationship like with this governor right now? This governor like the previous governor doesn't badmouth the university and we're very grateful for that He also is really ambitious For many things and I'm not sure the university is as high as some other things are on His list of priorities, but we have been really working the legislature There was quite wonderful meeting that John Perez who is the new chair of the Board of Regents Put together was a day and a half in San Diego Which he invited some leaders from the legislature three chancellors And I was one of the three that was invited as well as a few regions and we really had a meeting of the minds And so I think that it's not just the governor It's really the legislature to and changing the conversation with the legislature Next question. Is there any long-range plan to build more classrooms, especially large classrooms? Absolutely, there goes the 60 million Yeah, I the the building that we will build as half of the replacement for Evans will have many classrooms in it So will the replacement to Tolman? I was just talking with the Dean of the College of Natural Resources this morning Wellman is one of the the number sixes on our Seismic list and he was talking about his plans for renovation of Wellman and putting Restoring what used to be a 200 seat Amphitheater lecture room to that building. So we're very very aware There's another really interesting plan to try to create another performance space for Cal performances that would be a classroom when it's not being used for performances So we're very very focused on in all our building projects indeed. We've Identified it as a principle. There's no building project that will move forward that we won't put classrooms in So it was a few weeks ago. You created a little stir when you opined on the SAT blew up Twitter there for the afternoon You know casting some doubt about whether that should be part of the process and now you Unpack that a little bit too but the question here from the audience is can you speak to how you came to your recommendation to do away with the SAT in the application process? Yeah, I certainly can I went I was the provost here in the 90s when first the Regents passed as P1 and sp2 which prohibited among other things any use of gender race or ethnicity in admissions and then that later became enshrined in Proposition 209 on the state level and I saw at that point how the SAT really exaggerated the kind of Real drop in diversity That's the that that the University of California experienced at that point You met some of you may remember that Richard Atkinson who is the president at that point did a lot of study of the SAT Pat Hayashi who used to work on this campus was one of his really important partners in that study and What the the those these studies show which have continued to this day There's someone who works in our Center for Studies in higher education called Saul geyser Who's continued to do these studies and the most? Most important correlative with SAT scores is wealth And even when you strip out all the other correlatives, there's kind of racial correlative that you can't strip away You all know I'm sure about all the SAT prep resources that are available to parents who can pay And so I believe that the SAT does not create a level playing field For our students in their applications to the to the university when I was president of Smith I did away with the SAT as a requirement for application and we subsequently experienced a much larger and more diverse applicant pool and a much more diverse student body and Our admissions office didn't feel themselves in any way hampered in making judgments about the academic qualifications of of the applicants to Smith, so I Experienced what it means to make to go SAT optional and I think it's a good thing to do And so what's going on with the UC? Is there some sort of study group? Yeah? There's a study. There's the act you probably know that admissions are in the hands of the faculty so there is a group that is Studying the issue right now in the system-wide academic Senate. It's going to make a recommendation Fairly early in the new year February or March and then the Regents will act on that recommendation So staying with the admissions subject this question also from the audience the University of Texas system recruits a diverse student body by Giving admission to all Texas public high school students in the top ten percent to the UT system Those in the top seven percent are granted admission to the flagship UT Austin campus Is this a model the UC system or Berkeley could follow? What concrete steps is Berkeley taking to make the student body look more like the diverse population of California? Yeah, that's a great question. It in fact, we've done a lot of studying of this and It doesn't have the diversifying effect on our population that it had on the University of Texas in part because we're not as What are you referring to the top ten percent the top seven percent in part because we're not as racially and ethnically segregated as as Texas is I just actually met with the director of admissions yesterday asking that very question. What are we doing? and we're looking really really carefully at very diverse high schools that are particularly in our immediate neighborhood like Oakland Richmond, Berkeley And looking at those applicants really carefully We are redoubling our outreach efforts and will redouble our yield efforts to those schools I'm really delighted to say that there's been a very substantial increase in the diversity of our transfer pool of applicants this year though the Freshman applicants are pretty much the same in terms of diversity as as last year But I think this is going to be a multiple year project and Which we have to work not only on our outreach and yield but also on the culture that students experience when they come here I know you're going to be also sending out a talk stay same with admissions for a second There's going to be a campus message soon about some changes in how applications are read If you could talk about that a little bit and what what do you say to counter those who? fear the university is looking to end run proposition 209 So talk a little bit about those two things. Okay. Well, first of all, we made a new I apologize for this being kind of down in the weeds We it used to be when the readers would read applications the first thing they would see is the SAT score We're now putting that at the bottom of the application and Doing the profile stuff at the top We used to ask readers to say yes. No, maybe now We're saying recommend do not recommend partially, you know recommend so we're trying to change things about the reading process that will Make the readers or encourage the readers to take a more holistic view Challenges a student made of faith. Yes, exactly You know characteristics of the high school rather than right up front the numbers, which is the way that The reading process used to work We've changed the training of the readers, but we do not Take into account race or ethnicity or gender. We can't it's against law understood Staying with another complicated subject. This one is can you comment on implications for Berkeley regarding the administration the Trump administration's declaration? That Regarding anti-semitism that federal funds will be withheld from schools that don't provide that don't confront anti-semitism This was done under what's called title six title six offers protections for people based on race ethnicity And I for and nationality and there was concern in the Jewish community on one hand Parts of the Jewish community were seem pleased the administration is taking a stand against anti-semitism others concern that it Facilitates othering by suggesting that Jews are a nation apart. So what's what's what was your reaction to it? Do you think it's gonna have an impact here on campus? I I don't think it's gonna have much of an impact here on campus I've there's been a lot of debate in the press about the Contradiction between this presidential order and the presidential order to colleges and universities a little while ago again threatening federal funding taking away federal funding on and supporting academic freedom these are in contradiction with each other that that if you say This again gets way down in the weeds But if you take the definition that the presidential order has a Anti-semitism it would mean that anti-Israel statements are part of what is seen as anti-semitic yet you're certainly allowed to be critical of Israeli politics or or Support a Palestinian state or Palestinian liberation and free speech indeed It's one of the things that I say often to students and upsets them is you can say a lot of really Abhorrent things and they're protected by by the the First Amendment. So it's not I mean as with many things that the president is doing it seems to be more Motivated by a political goal than one that is actually good for colleges and universities But I actually don't think it's going to be Have much of an impact here Okay, moving into a different area. I'm always blown away by the full range of issues But you need to weigh it on so now we're gonna come back down to the ground level The question is is the problem is the housing problem severe enough that the campus is willing to engage in public conversations Regarding student affairs and here they're referring to the division of student affairs Student affairs reliance on housing revenue to support its programs rather than maintain existing Infrastructure or build new buildings. Yeah, I think that's a really important question and indeed it's a conversation we've been having privately and and one of the things that is absolutely wonderful about the These donor gifts we're getting for housing is that they will subsidize the cost of housing and enable us to make housing more affordable We're also pursuing other philanthropic gifts in regard to housing Another one next thanks for being here I understand you recently shared the Berkeley staff report on staff baby bonding leave with the UC council of chancellors How did they respond and what are the next steps any sense of when we might see a policy change? The all the other chancellors, I'm glad to say we're completely supportive as was the president She said get this done to the person who was the head of HR who was in the room And so I know it went to the vice chancellors for administration at their last meeting which I think was either yesterday of the day before yesterday and We're moving through that. There are a number of different ways to do this. What would be most preferable There's currently as many people may know a state law that stipulates that all State agencies as well as private organizations have to give a family leave and baby bonding leave But because the University of California is Constitutionally independent it doesn't apply to the University of California So we're going to need some kind of amendment to that state law to include the University of California That's as I understand it now That's the route that The office of the president wants to take and I just don't know how long that's all going to take We're gonna stay in the HR world here in the question Is some of us are forced to use vacation days during curtailment and some are not why not give us all the days off? Actually, I think that's a great idea Speaking as someone who has to use her vacation days Powerful but not that powerful I Think the I was certainly willing to take that issue up I think the complexity of it is that some people really do have to work over That that our campus let's backtrack a little bit when I was at Smith Smith really closed over a vacation It's completely closed. You couldn't do anything. Berkeley never really closes and so I I guess that You know, there would be an equity issue. You'd have to sort out. Maybe you just add to vacation days I actually think it's a good idea, but but I haven't had this conversation with anybody. So I I'm told that when I think something is a good idea that it is Sticking with this sort of same General subject as the question is as our student population grows. How do you plan to prioritize staff growth? especially in the student services side where students of Concern conflicts among student populations Demand more time to resolve. I I think student staff growth In student-facing staff has to be prioritized. I were under Invested I believe in advising staff where clearly there's a there's an Increasing demand for more counselors at the Tang Center and just student-facing staff I mean, it's not reasonable to think one of the things that I'm very concerned with sorry Restarting is that we have grown our student body as I said before by 30% we have not grown our faculty So too many students can't get classes can't get required classes We really need to grow the faculty and we have to grow the student-facing staff What are the plans on growing the faculty is that part of the campaign where that's that's part of the campaign in fact I should have said my opening remarks what the goals with the campaign are not just the new money goal, but the The the project goals we want to add at least a hundred faculty. We are Graduate student support is a very important goal for the campaign Because we are now no longer competitive with our private peers for our graduate student support packages and undergraduate scholarships and the kinds of programs that will enable students both to Navigate this very complex place better But also make sure that students who are on financial aid don't miss out on the kinds of Life-transforming experiences like doing research with a faculty member or having internships that really lead to future opportunities So those are some of the campaign priorities Got it Staying with money here. Is any additional funding or support being provided to retention centers on campus? And I cannot read the last word. I they gave an example of a retention center I'm not even sure what a retention center is if you could perhaps Explain well there there are all of them. There are many programs They're not a single program but all of the programs like EOP for example that provide resources or the student learning center that Provide resources and counseling for students that help them thrive at Berkeley We just got a wonderful wonderful grant from the Haas junior a foundation of ten million dollars A lot of that is going to retention efforts. We got another grant from the correct foundation Some of that is going to be used for retention connected efforts. I'm just curious You were talking about fundraising at different points throughout the conversation What's the main narrative when you meet with somebody who's potentially a very significant donor and they're interested and they want to know What's going on with Berkeley? Where is the head? What's sort of what's the one of the high points of what you convey what you want them to understand? What I talk about is very much where I've talked about here. I talk about my aspirations for the campus I try to get them to understand the Lack of equity of experience of our students. I talk about our great needs for Facilities and science and engineering many people think that Fundraising is like going in with a shopping list or going to an ATM And that's really not the case that it's a conversation and people who have enormous capacity and inclination to give think of the gifts that they give as their legacy in The world and they have to be deeply meaningful to them So it's not as if I go in and ask I want funding for LNS advising It's really a conversation in which I try to understand what's important to you about Berkeley What do you want to see for this university that you value so much and then we try to find a meeting of the minds of of things that meet the donors aspirations And things that the university indeed You know fit with the university's aspirations got it Let's see so here's first a thank you for UNIX unlimited courses in 2020 and this is what staff yes Yeah, yeah, that's great And I want to say how that arose which is I've been having a set of lunches at the Chancellor's house for the Elected union representatives and we of course can't talk about collective bargaining issues But we've been talking about their experience of working on the campus and things they'd like to see and This suggestion came from a lunch when we were talking about UNIX courses, and I remember a woman Talking so eloquently saying now we're only allowed to take courses that relate to our Work and can increase our expertise of whatever her job is. She said I'm a janitor There aren't any courses about being a janitor and I would love to take courses that would increase my you know The capacities that I have that would enable me to do a different kind of job And we really took this seriously another suggestion that came out of that lunch was ESL classes for employees who are Where who where English is a second language, so we've got some really good suggestions so I want to give credit to The employees who thought of this idea and then the the same person had a follow-up which Asking if tuition reimbursement will be offered for staff if the classes or master programs are taken outside. You see birth I don't think that's gonna happen. I that was I when I was at Smith I think the most valued benefit we offered our employees. You got half tuition for your kids no matter where they went But I don't think that's gonna. I don't think that's gonna happen here what I hope I have a meeting actually Later this week about this. I really hope that we're going to create a system-wide program whereby Employees who have not finished their Bachelor's degrees kind of finish their bachelor's degrees while they work Back to money and infrastructure are the seismic costs We need to address part of the two billion dollars in deferred maintenance or is that no it's in addition They've number that rose keeps quoting as our capital need is 13 billion dollars Yeah, that's a big number. We can that is a big number that is a big number two billion is two You know and speaking about budget reminds me of something else, you know for many years and for people who've been on campus for a while There have been issues with the athletics budget and I know that was a priority for you in the athletic director Where where are we that is there an agreement? Do you feel where the program is now been set on a financially sustainable course? Can you update us? Yes, the athletics budget is balanced in addition to the campus's budget Though I want to explain what that means because for years for decades athletics has been running a deficit deficit in excess of ten million dollars extending to twenty million dollars and more recent years and Every year the campus would pay that deficit So it wasn't as if it was a deficit like if you run a deficit, you know What accumulates and you ultimately like on your credit card you ultimately have to pay it plus interest This deficit was one that the campus paid for every year so one of the things that I realized was that We were actually budgeting athletics at a much larger figure Than was the putative campus contribution, which was five million dollars And I realized that the campus had not been being honest with itself That if it wanted an athletic program of the size scope and ambition of our current athletic program It's simply cost more in terms of a campus contribution To run that program then we were admitting to ourselves at cost Even though we were in fact budgeting it at that level because we were you know buying We were paying for the deficit year by year so Jim and I have lots and lots of meetings and We have agreed on an athletics budget with an increasing set set of a set of increasing both revenue and philanthropic targets Ultimately in about four or five years We're coming down to a campus contribution of 13.3 million dollars a year Which to give you kind of a sense of scale in the athletics budget That's about the size of the financial aid for our athletes. That's it's an athletic budget So you can think of us the campus is paying the equivalent of the financial aid that we offer our athletes And just to ask the obvious it feels like these are costs that you believe to be commensurate with the benefits that accrue to the campus Yes community I do I've been thinking a lot. I was not a big athletics fan before I became chancellor and the the But I've been so moved by there weren't a lot of opportunities in our lives to feel part of a group with which you identify and Games are one of those places where you do and I think it really has a An important community building Virtue the most important thing about athletics is the opportunities it gives our students to compete at an Extraordinarily high level of excellence across a broad range of sports and I've become convinced that it really is a front porch For many of our donors who don't give Certainly exclusively or even sometimes principally to athletics But athletics is the way they come together with the campus. So it's very important to our Philanthropy not philanthropy to just athletics Philanthropy to the campus more generally so before we started to suggest that I might ask you about the big game But I didn't notice what color This is This is one of the few days You're allowed to wear red. I'm so sad. I love red My wardrobe I studiously avoid the most of the year But I tell you there are three times when you can wear red just to give you all permission You can wear it at around Christmastime. You can wear it at Chinese New Year's and on Valentine's Day The red exemptions Okay, I won't ask about the big game No, but the axis on campus We have time for just a few more we'll try to get to them So this one is the world seems quote with STEM crazy these days What is Berkeley doing to help the liberal arts and the humanities survive and thrive? I? Want to say that one of Berkeley's great Great distinctions is its strength across the board in its academic programs. There is not a a Problem that's important to the future of the state the country and the world In which the humanities and the social sciences are not important partners in solving Take crisper So obviously in a very intensive STEM Scientology set of discoveries But the policies that apply to what's used the ethics of its use those are questions for humanists for philosophers Climate change obviously STEM intensive area But how you get people to change their behavior how do you get governments to change their behavior? What a good public policies those are Really social science kinds of topics and humanist topics so I I think Berkeley has a competitive edge because of the strength of its social sciences and humanities the Data science initiative on which is so important for the campus is as important to the social sciences as it is to the STEM disciplines It's also important to the humanities But probably not as central as it is to social sciences because the humanities don't work as fully with data. I Have to tell a funny story So there was a wonderful faculty member in English when I first arrived here named Josephine Miles and She her research was all about word frequency and she had armies of students who would page through Counting words and now you know that kind of research is actually important kind of research in the humanities word frequency But if they don't have students turning pages of counting words anymore So I'm gonna bundle up the last couple of questions But you may not know what I think you have a family member in the audience because this card says why are you so amazing? And do you sleep was the second part I do I do I read a book that changed my life And I want to tell all of you to read it or out over the holidays It's why you why we sleep by Matthew Walker and it talks about how important sleep is I tell students this all the time sleep eight hours a night and you should all do too and I try to All right, so I'm gonna bundle these together But and I think you'll get the general thrift thrust here and just if you could sort of riff on the general idea Three separate questions, but they're really all touching the same thing. What has been the most difficult decision you've made in 2019 what outcome are you most proud of in 2019 and then a separate question said you've been in leadership roles for a long time What new lessons have you learned about successful leadership in your role as chancellor? I think these are all sort of asking just to weigh in a step back for a second It's it's a hell of a hard complex job and You know, what have you learned and you know, what are the what are the things you most feel most proud about having? Tackled or maybe most wary about in the future Oh gosh, that's such a huge question. It is that I one of the things I've learned is that you have to gather a really good team around you and Make them responsible and accountable for the things you care about these jobs are huge and no one person can Do it all. I've also learned the importance of decisiveness That often the perfect is the enemy of the good and making a decision with reasonable promptness and efficiency Even if it's not the perfect decision enables you to move forward I think the things that I'm proudest of in That's such a complicated question I really so thrilled with some of the philanthropic gifts that we've gotten I don't think of those as decisions really, but they certainly have been relationships that have come to just extraordinary Extraordinary actions and those are really wonderful. Some of the toughest decisions I make or ones I can't discuss on this forum because they have to do with Personnel issues or so that those are those are And there was a third question and I'm forgetting it I forget too, but is it fun being chance. I mean do you wake up and say I can't wait to go to work or it's like Oh another day drinking from the fire hose Every day when I get in my car I say to myself of my father used to say when he left for work another day another dollar There are things that are enormously There there are things that are enormous fun and being chancellor. They're more important to me They're things that are enormously gratifying to me when you are Talking to someone who is going to give an extraordinary gift to the campus and is so thrilled about this gift And what it's going to accomplish That is an incredible thrill or when you see something moving forward that you care deeply about That's an enormous thrill. I mean there are certain daily days when I come home and I think why did I did do this job? Yeah, I know those days So before we wrap up I have one more card. I actually wanted to read our the next campus conversations January January 21 and we'll be joined here by our men and women's basketball coaches both of whom are new to campus and Really really interesting people. I'm gonna read the last card, which isn't a question But I'm gonna go out on the limb because I think it may capture what a lot of us think and feel It says thank you for this series of talks and question and answer I feel I'm more a part of the campus and enjoy getting to know some of the people helping to steer this big ship Thanks to everyone and I also want to say particularly thanks to what don do ball who helps put these together And I also just want to thank you chancellor Chris once again for your time in general