Brief History of the University
The roots of the University of California go back to the gold rush days of
1849, when the drafters of the State Constitution, a group of vigorous
and farsighted people, required the legislature to "encourage by all
suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral and
agricultural improvement" of the people of California. These early
planners dreamed of a university which eventually, "if properly
organized and conducted, would contribute even more than California's
gold to the glory and happiness of advancing generations."
The university that was born nearly 20 years later was the product of a
merger between the College of California (a private institution) and the
Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College (a land grant
institution). The College of California, founded by former
Congregational minister Henry Durant from New England, was incorporated
in 1855 in Oakland. Its curriculum was modeled after that of Yale and
Harvard, with the addition of modern languages to the core courses in
Latin, Greek, history, English, mathematics, and natural history. With
an eye to future expansion, the board of trustees augmented the
college's Oakland holdings with the purchase of 160 acres of land four
miles north, on a site they named Berkeley in 1866. (Cal's Charter was
introduced in 1868.) This original tract was to be considerably expanded
over the years.
While the College of California was in its infancy, efforts continued in
the state legislature to create a public educational institution, and in
1866 the legislature took advantage of the federal Morrill Land Grant
Act of 1862 to establish the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts
College. The college was to teach agricultural, mechanical arts, and
military tactics "to promote the liberal and practical education of the
industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life."
Scientific and classical studies were not to be excluded but were of
secondary importance.
The boards of trustees of the College of California and the Agricultural,
Mining, and Mechanical Arts College decided to merge the two schools to
their mutual advantage -- one had land but insufficient funds and the
other had ample public funds but no land-on the condition that the
curricula of both schools be blended to form "a complete university." On
March 23, 1868, the governor signed into law the Organic Act that
created the University of California. The new university used the former
College of California's buildings in Oakland until South Hall and North
Hall were completed on the Berkeley site (South Hall is still standing),
and in September 1873 the University, with an enrollment of 191
students, moved to Berkeley.
Fiscal problems plagued the new University, and it was not until the
20-year presidency of Benjamin Ide Wheeler beginning in 1899 that
finances stabilized, allowing the University to grow in size and
distinction. Early in this period Phoebe Apperson Hearst, one of the
University's most generous benefactors, conceived of and financed an
unparalleled — indeed, scarcely believable — opportunity for architects,
an international competition for campus architectural plans that, she
stipulated, "should be worthy of the great University whose material
home they are to provide for."
The competition, won by Emile Bénard of Paris, brought Berkeley not
only a building plan but worldwide notoriety. The London Spectator
wrote, "On the face of it this is a grand scheme, reminding one of those
famous competitions in Italy in which Brunelleschi and Michaelangelo
took part. The conception does honor to the nascent citizenship of the
Pacific states. . . ." At Oxford University, which at the time was
strapped for funds, a Latin orator said, "There is brought a report that
in California there is already established a university furnished with
so great resources that even to the architects (a lavish kind of men)
full permission has been given to spare no expense. Amidst the most
pleasant hills on an elevated site, commanding a wide sea view, is to be
placed a home of Universal Science and a seat of the muses."
John Galen Howard, the supervising architect charged with implementing
the Bénard plan, took advantage of his "permission to spare no expense"
and developed a style of architecture that reinterpreted the grace,
dignity, and austerity of classical lines to suit the California
environment. Some of the campus's most elegant and stately structures
were built during Howard's tenure, among them the Hearst Memorial Mining
Building (1902-7), the Hearst Greek Theatre (1903), California Hall
(1905), Doe Library (1911-17), the Campanile (1914), Wheeler Hall
(1917), Gilman Hall (1917), and Hilgard Hall (1918).
President Wheeler, a classical scholar and able administrator, attracted
library and scholarship funds, research grants, and a distinguished
faculty to the University, and its reputation grew, particularly in the
fields of agriculture, the humanities, and engineering. Many new
departments were added in the early years of his presidency, and
existing departments expanded. Summer sessions were begun in 1899 to
train physics and chemistry teachers and before long broadened their
scope.
The University grew with the rapidly expanding population of California
and responded to the educational needs of the developing state. In the
early 1900s the University's new College of Commerce (now the Haas
School of Business) trained students for export trade with the Orient
and funneled graduates into industries and businesses throughout the
state. During the same period a foreign service training program was
developed in response to State Department concern about the poor quality
of consular personnel.
In 1930 Robert Gordon Sproul began a presidency that lasted three
decades. His principal concern was academic excellence, and he was
committed to attracting brilliant faculty in all fields. His success was
particularly evident in the physical and biological sciences.
In the 1930s research on campus burgeoned in nuclear physics, chemistry,
and biology, leading to the development of the first cyclotron by Ernest
O. Lawrence, the isolation of the human polio virus, and the discovery
of a string of elements heavier than uranium. Twenty members of the
Berkeley faculty have been awarded Nobel Prizes for these and subsequent
discoveries, as well as in literature and economics, for liberal arts
kept pace with physical sciences. In 1966 Berkeley was recognized by the
American Council on Education as "the best balanced distinguished
university in the country."
