perative housing options. The largest network of student housing cooperatives in the area is the Ber

Students at UC Berkeley live in a variety of housing that cater to personal and academic preferences and styles. The university offers two years of guaranteed housing for entering freshmen, and one year for entering transfer students. The immediately surrounding community offers apartments, Greek (fraternity and sorority) housing and cooperative housing, twenty of which are houses that are members of the Berkeley Student Cooperative.
University housing[edit]
Main article: Housing at the University of California, Berkeley


Cunningham Hall and the newly built Towle Hall, part of the Unit 2 residence hall complex
The university runs twelve different residence halls, ranging from undergraduate residence halls (both themed and non-themed) and family student housing, to re-entry student housing and optional international student housing at the International House. Undergraduate residence halls are located off-campus in the city of Berkeley. Units 1, 2 and 3, located on the south side of campus, offer high-rise accommodations with common areas on every other floor. These three residential high-rises share a common dining hall, called Crossroads. Further away and also on the south side of campus is Clark Kerr, an undergraduate residence hall complex that houses many student athletes and was once a school for the deaf and blind.


Bowles Hall at the 2003 Homecoming and Parents Weekend
In the foothills east of the central campus, there are three additional undergraduate residence hall complexes: Foothill, Stern, and Bowles. Foothill is a co-ed suite-style hall reminiscent of a Swiss chalet. According to the Chancellor, it is considered one of the best residence halls at UC Berkeley. Just south of Foothill, overlooking the Hearst Greek Theatre, is the all-women's traditional-style Stern Hall, which boasts an original mural by Diego Rivera. Because of their proximity to the College of Engineering and College of Chemistry, these residence halls often house science and engineering majors. They tend to be quieter than the southside complexes, but because of their location next to the theatre, often get free glimpses of concerts. Bowles Hall, the oldest state-owned residence hall in California, is located immediately north of California Memorial Stadium. Dedicated in 1929 and on the National Register of Historic Places, this all-men's residence hall has large quad-occupancy rooms and has the appearance of a castle.
The Channing-Bowditch and Ida Jackson apartments are intended for older students.[111][112] Family student housing consists of two main groups of housing: University Village and Smyth-Fernwald. University Village is located three miles (5 km) north-west of campus in Albany, California, and Smyth-Fernwald near the Clark Kerr campus.
Cooperative housing[edit]
Students in Berkeley have a number of cooperative housing options. The largest network of student housing cooperatives in the area is the Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC).
Main article: Berkeley Student Cooperative
Students of UC Berkeley, as well as students of other universities and colleges in the area, have the option of living in one of the twenty cooperative houses of the Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC), formerly the University Students' Cooperative Association (USCA), and member of the national cooperative federation, NASCO. The BSC is a nonprofit housing cooperative network consisting of 20 cooperative homes and 1250 member-owners.[113] The USCA (as the BSC was known by at that time) was founded in 1933 by then-director of the YWCA, Harry Kingman. The birth of the USCA, as well as many other cooperative organizations around the country, coincided with the Great Depression precisely as a response to scant resources. By living together in large houses and pooling together resources, members found that their monetary resources could go further to pay for their cost of living than living separately. In the 1960s, the USCA pioneered the first co-ed university housing in Berkeley, called the Ridge Project (later renamed Casa Zimbabwe). In 1975, the USCA founded its first and only vegetarian-themed house, Lothlorien. In 1997, the USCA opened its African-American theme house, Afro House, and in 1999 its LGBT-themed house, named after queer Irish author and poet Oscar Wilde.[114]
Notable alumni of the BSC include Marion Nestle, professor at New York University and author of Food Politics, and Beverly Cleary.
Fraternities and sororities[edit]
Main article: List of fraternities and sororities at University of California, Berkeley
Student-run organizations[edi

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C" red and also fraternities and sororities who paint it their organization's colors. One of the Rally Committee's functions is to repaint the Big "C" to its traditional color of King Alfred Yellow.

wow yell, he is cared for by the Oski Committee, whose members have exclusive knowledge of the identity of the costume-wearer.[103]
The University of California Marching Band, which has served the university since 1891, performs at every home football game and at select road games as well. A smaller subset of the Cal Band, the Straw Hat Band, performs at basketball games, volleyball games, and other campus and community events.[104]
The UC Rally Committee, formed in 1901, is the official guardian of California's Spirit and Traditions. Wearing their traditional blue and gold rugbies, Rally Committee members can be seen at all major sporting and spirit events. Committee members are charged with the maintenance of the five Cal flags, the large California banner overhanging the Memorial Stadium Student Section and Haas Pavilion, the California Victory Cannon, Card Stunts and The Big "C" among other duties. The Rally Committee is also responsible for safekeeping of the Stanford Axe when it is in Cal's possession.[105] The Chairman of the Rally Committee holds the title "Custodian of the Axe" while it is in the Committee's care.
Overlooking the main Berkeley campus from the foothills in the east, The Big "C" is an important symbol of California school spirit. The Big "C" has its roots in an early 20th-century campus event called "Rush," which pitted the freshman and sophomore classes against each other in a race up Charter Hill that often developed into a wrestling match. It was eventually decided to discontinue Rush and, in 1905, the freshman and sophomore classes banded together in a show of unity to build the Big "C".[106] Owing to its prominent position, the Big "C" is often the target of pranks by rival Stanford University students who paint the Big "C" red and also fraternities and sororities who paint it their organization's colors. One of the Rally Committee's functions is to repaint the Big "C" to its traditional color of King Alfred Yellow.
Cal students invented the college football tradition of card stunts. Then known as Bleacher Stunts, they were first performed during the 1910 Big Game and consisted of two stunts: a picture of the Stanford Axe and a large blue "C" on a white background. The tradition continues today in the Cal student section and incorporates complicated motions, for example tracing the Cal script logo on a blue background with an imaginary yellow pen.[107]
The California Victory Cannon, placed on Tightwad Hill overlooking the stadium, is fired before every football home game, after every score, and after every Cal victory. First used in the 1963 Big Game, it was originally placed on the sidelines before moving to Tightwad Hill in 1971. The only time the cannon ran out of ammunition was during a game against Pacific in 1991, when Cal scored 12 touchdowns.[108]
Other traditions have included events that span only a few years. William (or Willie) the Polka Dot Man was a performance artist who frequented Sproul Plaza during the late 1970s and early 1980s.[109] The Naked Guy (now deceased[110]) and Larry the Drummer, who performed Batman tunes, appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s.[109]
A few current traditions include streaking during finals week in the Main Stacks, the Happy Happy Man, and Stoney Burke.
Student housing[edit]

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ary.[99] However, considering the relative sizes and ages of these University libraries, Berkeley's collections have been growing about as fast as those at Harvard and Yale combined: specifically, 1

3.80
3.90
Berkeley received 77,485 freshmen and transfer applications for admission to the undergraduate program in Fall 2012; 14,527 were admitted (18.7%).[94] Of the Fall 2011 cohort, 97% of freshmen enrolled the next year. The four-year graduation rate for the Fall 2007 cohort was 61%, and the six-year rate was 88%.[85][95] Admitted freshman applicants had an average high school GPA of 4.16, an average ACT Composite score of 30, and an average combined SAT score of 2067 (average SAT scores of 674 for Critical Reading, 701 for Mathematics, and 692 for Writing).[96] Berkeley's enrollment of National Merit Scholars was third in the nation until 2002, when participation in the National Merit program was discontinued.[97] 31% of admitted students receive federal Pell grants.[98]
There were 18,231 applications to masters programs with 20% admitted and 14,361 applications to doctoral program with 16% admitted.[85]


The north side of Doe Library with Memorial Glade in the foreground.
Library system[edit]
Main article: University of California, Berkeley Library System
Berkeley's 32 libraries tie together to make the fourth largest academic library in the United States surpassed only by Harvard University Library, Yale University Library and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.[99] However, considering the relative sizes and ages of these University libraries, Berkeley's collections have been growing about as fast as those at Harvard and Yale combined: specifically, 1.8 times faster than Harvard, and 1.9 times faster than Yale. In 2003, the Association of Research Libraries ranked it as the top public and third overall university library in North America based on various statistical measures of quality.[100] As of 2006, Berkeley's library system contains over 11 million volumes and maintains over 70,000 serial titles.[101] The libraries together cover over 12 acres (4.9 ha) of land and form one of the largest library complexes in the world.[102] Doe Library serves as the library system's reference, periodical, and administrative center, while most of the main collections are housed in the subterranean Gardner Main Stacks and Moffitt Undergraduate Library. The Bancroft Library, with holdings of over 400,000 printed volumes, maintains a collection that documents the history of the western part of North America, with an emphasis on California, Mexico and Central America.
Student life and traditions[edit]



Sather gate and Sather tower (the Campanile) from Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus
The official university mascot is Oski the Bear, who debuted in 1941. Previously, live bear cubs were used as mascots at Memorial Stadium. It was decided in 1940 that a costumed mascot would be a better alternative to a live bear. Named after the Oski-wow-

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