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History of the University Statistics Traditions of CAL UC Berkeley Online Tour 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. California had few families in 1849 and few children to educate, but 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.

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 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 all the artificial elements heavier than uranium. Sixteen 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."

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Traditions of CAL

• Cal Band : The University of California Marching Band

• Cal Tour : Golden Bear Tour (Blue and Gold, Golden Bears, Card Stunt, The Axe, The Game)

• Spirit Groups : California Dance Team

• Haas Pavilion : State-of-the-art sports facility

• Oski : Cal's Mascot

• Memorial Stadium: A football stadium on campus in honor of the World War I participants who lost their lives on the battlefields abroad, the response and results were staggering.

• Cal Songs : Songs of California

• Hellman Center : Hellman Tennis Center

• Stow Plaza : Thomas Stow Plaza (a legend in California tennis history)

• Ky Ebright Boathouse : A virtual Olympic museum

• Famous Cal Alums : Shirley Dean(Mayor of Berkeley)... and more.

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