Dear Graduate Student Community, I write to you to balance my optimism regarding returning to in-person instruction this fall with my concern on behalf of our community about the alarming spike in COVID-19 cases nationally and on campus, including a … Continued
Dear Graduate Student Community, I want to first acknowledge and thank you for your incredible work in adapting to the challenges of remote learning and teaching. I know that many in our graduate student community (and myself personally) have been … Continued
Dear Graduate Student Community, As we close out this tumultuous and exhausting year, I am profoundly grateful for your flexibility and resilience, and for the staff, faculty, and partners who are doing their best to support you in all aspects … Continued
Dear Graduate Student Community, The start of the semester has coincided with a new wildfire crisis layered on top of the pandemic and ongoing expressions of state violence. The smoke in the air makes it difficult to breathe, increases our … Continued
Dear Graduate Student Community, To our returning students, we are so glad to see you back! For our new graduate students, my message to you is simple: you belong here and we are lucky to have you. Welcome to our … Continued
Dear Graduate Student Community, I am grieving the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, Sandra Bland, and too many others. I have been sickened by how brutally police across this country have responded to … Continued
Graduate Student Community, I hope you and your loved ones are taking the necessary measures to stay safe and healthy during this challenging time. We know that the COVID-19 crisis has brought immense disruption to our campus and to the … Continued
Dear Graduate Student Community, Above all, we hope you and your loved ones are safe and well. Over the course of the last few weeks, the personal and professional lives of our students, staff and faculty have converged, and much … Continued
I know that many of you have received multiple messages about coronavirus (COVID-19) preparedness and recommended precautions to take as students at UC Berkeley. On behalf of the Graduate Division, I wanted to touch on the various ways our staff … Continued
So much of graduate students’ experience at UC Berkeley comes down to the day-to-day — the faculty, staff, and student interactions that can both lift you up and bring you down. While my staff, myself and university leaders are collaborating … Continued
As the fall semester winds down, I want to thank the Berkeley graduate community for being so welcoming to me as I stepped into this new role and for working with and alongside me to amplify support and communication around … Continued
As we approach the end of November, semester deadlines and holidays can add additional stress and take us out of our usual routines. I urge you to do whatever it takes to help yourself manage your stress — take breaks, … Continued
With support from my staff, I held a Graduate Student Town Hall on Sept. 26 to hear students’ thoughts on the future of graduate education at Berkeley as well as how the Graduate Division can better serve today’s students. In … Continued
My colleague recently suggested that I write a message to graduate students promoting “work-life balance” in graduate school. I had to admit that I think the idea of “balance” is the wrong frame.
If you are arriving at Cal as a new graduate student, my message to you is simple: you belong here and we are lucky to have you.
Read about the top three priorities for Vice Provost and Dean Lisa García Bedolla.
I am retiring at the end of the month, and passing the baton to Lisa Garciá-Bedolla, who will be a wonderful advocate for graduate education.
Savor your accomplishments, and remember that you will always be part of the Berkeley community.
Welcome incoming Vice Provost and Dean Lisa García Bedolla.
Explore talks, videos, meetings and events that expand your thinking.
Learn tips and skills that will help you throughout your career!
Find out how the new Professional Development Liaison Program can help.
Catch your breath, spend time with family and friends, have some fun, and think about new opportunities.
The new recalibrate website can help you find the help you need.
Graduate studies can bring surprises that prove to be great opportunities.
In addition to your academic work, I urge you to take some time to explore the broader Berkeley campus and its offerings.
Welcome and orientation activities are underway — be sure that you access all that Berkeley offers!
Need something? There is a resource for that.
Explore opportunities for using your summer well.
A time to applaud student accomplishments.
Supporting and rewarding excellent mentoring is a Berkeley priority.
Hear about your peers’ research — and applaud the faculty who inspire and mentor our graduate students!
While the campus marks its 150th anniversary, we’re also planning for a sound and sustainable future. And you can have your say!
Start your semester by exploring opportunities to expand your horizons and hone your skills!
Pause to reflect, recharge, and plan ahead!
Cultivating gratitude has many benefits — explore how it might benefit you!
Because disasters — whether fire, flood, or earthquake — can strike anytime, we serve ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities by being prepared.
Good scholarship and professionalism rest on rigor and integrity in developing and examining viewpoints, always with civility and respect.
Welcome and orientation activities are underway – be sure that you and your fellow students access all that Berkeley offers!
Explore opportunities for using your summer well.
Reflections on graduate students’ inspiring accomplishments.
Legislators at all levels need to know about the importance of graduate research.
Our next Chancellor is announced… and after Spring Break, our next Grad Slam Champion will be chosen!
Professional development opportunities this semester include competing in Grad Slam for prizes and a chance to represent Berkeley at the high-profile UC-wide competition.
During the semester break, take advantage of time to have fun and connect with friends and family.
The UC Berkeley community affirms our commitment to inclusion and respect for diversity of background, experience, and approach.
If you can, act on your civic responsibility by voting on November 8. If you’re not able to vote, add your voice to a democratic exchange of viewpoints.
Your input will be sought on plans to provide campus housing to 25% of the graduate student population, among other goals proposed by the Housing Master Plan Task Force.
New Graduate Student Orientations are for incoming students; GradNews is for all students!
In the face of tragedy, what we can do to make the world a more just and peaceful place.
In response to the shocking news of the mass shooting that occurred in Orlando, FL targeting the LGBTQA+ community, I wish everyone an empowering and safe Pride Month as we mourn the events and innocent lives lost in the attack.
At whenever stage you are in your academic or professional career, now is a good time for reflecting, planning, and balancing!
Throughout your graduate career, take advantage of professional development opportunities!
Expanded health insurance is ahead, the Berkeley Grad Slam is around the corner, and spring is on its way!
Spring festivals remind me of the multicultural richness of the Berkeley campus and our surrounding area.
Welcome back! Important opportunities and events are just ahead in the coming weeks!
Winter break offers time to refresh your rhythms, consider new resolutions, and think ahead to the new year.
On November 19, BIG GIVE day, check out what we do for you! Stop by our open house from 12:30 to 2:30 pm, 309 Sproul Hall and share some refreshments.
Pairing summer research with mentoring opportunities is a smart combination with many benefits for participating graduate students.
Creating balance between academic work and personal refreshment is vital for keeping healthy and for succeeding in your goals over the long haul.
New and continuing graduate students will have new opportunities to develop skills, prepare for diverse careers and set goals with the help of the new Graduate Professional Services (GPS) Center, launching soon.
The campus is humming with the excitement of more than 16,000 students here for Summer Sessions. When your paths intersect, enrich your own perspectives by taking time to meet new people from near and far, and share your Berkeley stories.
The Berkeley campus offers support to those affected by the tragic accident in the City of Berkeley.
Use this summer to reflect on your academic progress and research you’ve accomplished this year, and happy journeys ahead.
Teaching is an incredibly important part of Berkeley’s academic landscape, and this is the time of year when a variety of awards and ceremonies recognize exceptional accomplishments in teaching and mentoring.
I find it especially exciting when chances to shine are open to all graduate students from all sectors of our campus — and even more so, when Berkeley students vie for the spotlight with peers from the nine other UC campuses.
In my first month as the new Dean of the Graduate Division, I’ve been crisscrossing the campus, visiting the 18 schools, colleges, meeting with deans, department chairs, senior administrators, faculty, students, and staff. I’ve been doing a lot of listening . . .
Happy New Year! I hope that the new semester finds you energized from the winter break, whether you spent it relaxing with family and friends, traveling, tearing down a ski slope, or doing something else that you love doing.
As the Interim Dean of the Graduate Division, I have enjoyed the opportunity to deepen my involvement with various projects close to my heart. The new Dean of the Graduate Division, Fiona Doyle, Professor of Mineral Engineering, will begin her post on January 1, 2015.
Graduate education at Berkeley is fueled by many forces: great minds with a passion for discovery; a drive to approach problems in new ways to innovate new solutions, and philanthropy . . .
Berkeley has preserved the documentary record of this extraordinary time, ensuring that future generations will be in a position to explore these events that changed the landscape of higher education in the United States.
For the 17th consecutive year, the most recent rankings by U.S. News & World Report placed UC Berkeley as first among public universities in the nation.
For incoming students, I hope to see you at the New Graduate Student Orientation (NGSO) on Tuesday, August 26. This lively half-day event is packed with speakers and workshops tailored to help you learn about resources essential to getting oriented to campus.
For the past three years, Rosemary Joyce has served as Associate Dean. Now, she is stepping in as Interim Dean of the Graduate Division this summer and fall, while the campus conducts a search for a successor to former Dean Andrew Szeri, who has taken on a different Vice Provost role.
As Andrew Szeri moves on to his new position, Vice Provost, Strategic Academic & Facilities Planning, he reflects on his time at Graduate Division. “It has been my privilege to help lead Berkeley’s efforts to support the ambitions of more than 10,000 graduate students and to help enable the world-class excellence of 100-plus programs.” said Szeri.
Congratulations! The semester is coming to an end, as recently did the “Campaign for Berkeley.” The six year campaign successfully raised over $3 billion for the University and nearly doubled graduate fellowships.
About one-quarter of all graduate students participated in the survey, which found 79 percent of graduate students were satisfied with their academic experience at UC Berkeley. The survey is believed to be the largest study of institutional climate ever conducted.
Berkeley leads three West Coast universities in an unprecedented alliance to broaden the pipeline of Ph.D. students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty in STEM disciplines.
Over the last year I have been thrilled to see multiple initiatives emerge to expand professional development opportunities for graduate students. One of those — organized by graduate students and postdoctoral appointees — is the second annual “Beyond Academia” Conference on February 20-21.
Here’s good news to start the spring semester: A personalized one-stop web service — called CalCentral — has just been released to all campus constituencies.
January will bring unprecedented change to millions of Americans as formerly uninsured and under-insured citizens gain access to new health insurance options created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Obamacare.” You’ll be glad to know that SHIP provides all of the ACA-mandated “essential health benefits.”
I was glad to see some of you November 8th at the Inauguration of Nicholas B. Dirks as the 10th Chancellor of UC Berkeley. The day was one of “pomp and circumstance.”
If you receive a fellowship or award, be aware that all or part of it may be taxable as income.
View your progress towards degree and check the status of various forms, petitions, and approvals, including qualifying exam results, dissertation/thesis committee constitution, advancement-to-candidacy, academic employment appointments, fellowships and awards.
Summer is flying by. In just a few weeks, the whirlwind of start-of-semester activities will begin. Those of you who are returning to Berkeley will be greeting your newest graduate student colleagues to your department or program and to the … Continued
Currently registered graduate and undergraduate student parents will have access to 60 hours of emergency back-up child care at highly subsidized rates, beginning mid-August, as long as funds permit.
On June 4th, a group of deans and graduate students from all UC campuses attended the Graduate Research Advocacy Day in Sacramento. They spoke with lawmakers about the value of graduate education to the State of California.
Working on your dissertation this summer? Check out the Dissertation Writer’s Room in Doe Library. Traveling abroad? Take advantage of University travel resources.
Did you know that graduate students can vote in ASUC elections, happening right now? Check out the referenda that may indeed be of considerable interest to you — and then, vote!
While we have our own internal standards for assessing and maintaining academic quality at Berkeley, it’s been gratifying to see that highly regarded national and international measures judge that Berkeley continues to do very well — superbly, in fact.
Do you know personally any students who have applied to graduate schools and are considering Berkeley among their options? Please share your insider knowledge about your program, the faculty, the courses and the research.
Welcome back! I hope you took time during the holiday break to recharge your batteries and gain some fresh perspectives on your work and your life. As for me, my perspective was altered by a week in rural Cambodia, doing my small part to volunteer with a medical clinic …
We can always count on you to be very frank and thoughtful. We were on tenterhooks waiting for your survey answers to arrive and be compiled, and let out a big sigh of relief when we saw the results.
Sometimes undergraduates need an extra nudge to prompt them to consider applying to graduate school. It could come from you.
Have you updated your WarnMe contact options? WarnMe is a campus service that exists to save live, including yours.
My message this time is directed to students who hold U.S. citizenship, and it can be summed up in two words: please vote! A vital first step is registering to vote, and the deadline for that is October 22. Here’s how.
Graduate students: whether you’re among the 3,000 newcomers or the 7,000 returnees, here are some tips worth noting, from the Graduate Dean.
Message from the Dean: What do the afterglow of the Big Bang and the influence of facial hair on 19th-century American presidential politics have in common? The new SMART program, being piloted this summer with graduate students mentoring undergrads in hands-on research.
Dear Graduate Students, As the spring semester drew to a close, I enjoyed several opportunities to celebrate great teaching by graduate students. At the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award ceremony on the first of May at International House, we acknowledged … Continued
Not all aspects of a dean’s job bring smiles; it’s hardly possible to please everyone all the time. That said, there are events during the year that irresistibly bring a smile to my face, and make a lot of people … Continued
