Over the holidays, I had a chance to reflect on 2016 and everything that occurred during it. Obviously, this included major geopolitical events like the U.S. election and Brexit. But I also spent some time reflecting on events taking place closer to home, including an unfortunate situation involving one of the country's most important institutions of higher learning – UC Berkeley.
My paternal grandparents went to Cal. My parents went to Cal. I grew up in Berkeley, so I've always had a strong connection to the University of California. A few years ago, when I started getting email invitations to meet with UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks, I assumed it was because of this family history.
As the institution's newly appointed Chancellor, Dirks had assumed the responsibility of turning around a 144-year-old institution with an ongoing structural deficit challenge in the face of significantly reduced state funding. That, I assumed, was why I was getting those emails. The school was looking for new donors.
But while many of my family members are loyal Cal grads, I went to Stanford and Oxford. Thus, those were the first higher-education institutions I had decided to support. In addition to those, I had also supported MIT and Harvard. So I wasn't actively looking for another philanthropic opportunity in this domain, and I never responded to those UC Berkeley emails.
Then, I happened to meet Nick at an event in Montana. We had an illuminating conversation about how to modernize the public university and keep it relevant in an era of rapid technological change and shifting work and career patterns.
Having read my book The Start-up of You, Nick was eager to discuss the ways in which entrepreneurial thinking and networks could positively impact UC Berkeley students and graduates.
That initial conversation blossomed into a rich, ongoing dialog. We talked about how UC Berkeley could use technology to make courseware more effective and streamline administrative processes. We discussed how the school could create more two-way connections to alumni, and how the school's various centers for research could tap into Silicon Valley and its ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation.
In short, Nick recognized how technology was transforming how and why people access higher education, and thus what they expect from universities. His task was to inject new thinking into an organization with deeply entrenched traditions and escalating sustainability issues. Instead of assuming he and his colleagues had all the answers, he was looking for input from outside sources, people operating in entirely different domains.
Nick's vision and ambition were inspiring. He wasn't interested in simply preserving the status quo amidst changing funding conditions. He wanted to make UC Berkeley sustainable and actually increase its importance in the local community and the world at large.
To do this, he forged stronger ties with UCSF and Stanford through joint efforts like the Innovative Genomics Initiative and the Chan Zuckerberg Institute Biohub. He enhanced UC Berkeley's global footprint through new alliances and relationships with universities in Asia and Europe. He launched an ambitious initiative to revamp the undergraduate experience life at Cal, with a more interdisciplinary curriculum and improved physical spaces. He created a new division of Data Science for research as well as teaching, and also launched a new Arts + Design Initiative that facilitates increased collaboration across departments, faculty, students, and other university resources that specialize in these areas.
And by pursuing stronger ties with alumni and other allies, he boosted Berkeley's fundraising results to new levels, setting a record in 2016 for both the total number of donations and the amount raised -- $480 million. In fact, because of outreach efforts from Nick and another friend of Berkeley, my wife Michelle and I decided to support the Arts + Design Initiative.
As a public university, UC Berkeley faces an ongoing structural challenge. Like all of the campuses in the University of California system, UC Berkeley is governed by state regulations that determine what tuition it can charge, the number of in-state students it must admit, and various other factors that impact its ability to generate revenue and thus control its own financial destiny.
At the same time, the financial support the state provides has dropped dramatically over the last several decades. As the Washington Post reported in early 2016, "just about 13 percent of Berkeley’s operating revenue came from state appropriations in 2014-2015, down from roughly 50 percent in the 1980s."
To preserve UC Berkeley's status as the country's leading public university under such conditions is an enormous challenge. When Nick announced that the institution would have to streamline the budgets of academic programs and consolidate campus services, the resistance and criticism he got from UC Berkeley's faculty started to intensify.
In this kind of climate, any administrative misstep becomes fodder for political opportunism, as different constituencies with different interests to protect look for points of strategic advantage.
Earlier this year, Nick was criticized for not moving quickly enough or strongly enough in regard to two sexual harassment cases involving UCB faculty members. In another instance, he was blamed for the high cost of a fence the school was building around his campus residence in the wake of several security breaches.
In the face of the significant challenges it faces, UC Berkeley needs a coordinated effort amongst its various constituencies, where all parties are committed to working together in a spirit of collaboration, compromise, and shared purpose.
But the environment at Berkeley was growing increasingly fractious. While Nick remained committed to the success of the University, he also recognized that amidst significant budgetary challenges and imminent change it needed a leader who wasn't enmeshed in polarizing political battles.
In August, Nick announced his intention to resign: UCB is currently looking for a new chancellor.
I was sorry to see this development – because, ultimately, I believe the curiosity and dynamism that Nick had brought to the job was exactly what UC Berkeley needs as it seeks to adapt to changing conditions. Indeed, I hope whoever succeeds him will bring a similar vision and energy to the challenge. For nearly 150 years, UC Berkeley has played a vital role in the progress and prosperity of California and the nation at large; it's a crucial asset that we must protect and re-vitalize.
And of course I look forward to seeing Nick's next play, whether he continues to work at Berkeley or pursue new opportunities in Silicon Valley or elsewhere. There are myriad opportunities to re-tool higher education in ways that educate students more effectively and better prepare them for lifelong success and continued learning. In his role as UC Berkeley's Chancellor, Nick established himself as one of the most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in this space.