Dear colleagues,
Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 18th! Planning is underway for Cal Day 2020, our annual campus-wide open house showcasing the best of Berkeley to thousands of newly admitted students – many of whom choose to attend Berkeley as a result of this experience – and their families. We invite you to begin considering how your department or unit will take part.
This year Cal Day will align with the campus’s year long commemoration of 150 Years of Women at Berkeley. If your school or department has any “firsts” or notable recognitions in this area we encourage you to use the day to celebrate! And as always, we intentionally and purposefully create programming designed for admitted students so that they may imagine themselves as a part of the Berkeley family. The day will begin at 8 AM in Haas Pavilion with a morning welcome from Chancellor Christ and other campus leaders for these admitted students and their families. Following the morning welcome, families will have the opportunity to visit the Admitted Student Expo designed to engage families and demonstrate Berkeley's commitment to ensuring that all students find community and achieve academic success.
We will continue the large-format celebration across the rest of the campus that appeals to the broader community while at the same time ensuring our admitted students feel especially welcome and can discover all that Berkeley has to offer them. Cal Day typically features more than 400 events to showcase the rich diversity of student life and the brilliance of Berkeley. To help Cal Day attendees navigate the event, we encourage everyone to utilize the special Cal Day app to get the most out of the day.
During the day, admission is free to the Lawrence Hall of Science and the Hearst Museum of Anthropology, as well as to a variety of athletic events. Campus guests can attend talks given by some of our most distinguished faculty, visit labs, see classrooms, and explore museums and collections rarely open to the public.
We urge every campus department and unit to begin now to make a plan to participate. Units might host a single event or lecture, staff a table at the Information Marketplace (tables spanning from Sather Gate to Wheeler Hall) or create more extensive activities specifically to engage newly admitted students and their families. Our academic departments, in particular, should be broadly represented to help engage and secure admitted students.
For departments that host special events during the year, we encourage you to consider scheduling these on Cal Day to create more opportunities for guests on that day.
If your department would like to participate, please contact La Dawn Duvall, Executive Director of Visitor & Parent Services, at calday@berkeley.edu.
We encourage you to appoint a representative to attend the Cal Day orientation meeting for new and returning coordinators on Wednesday, January 22nd, from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. in 103A Sproul Hall.
Thank you for your efforts to showcase Berkeley’s excellence in this popular and important event.
Sincerely,
Cathy Koshland, Vice Chancellor of Undergraduate Education
Stephen C. Sutton, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs
Diana Harvey, Associate Vice Chancellor of Communications & Public Affairs
If you are a manager who supervises UC Berkeley employees without email access, please circulate this information to all.
