Since it’s an open house, Cal Day is a chance to see parts of the campus you haven’t wandered into before, many with guides, demonstrations, exhibits, and more. Got kids? There are activities for all ages.

As always, graduate students are an integral part of the day, speaking, explaining, providing demonstrations of experiments and equipment, and, around the Valley Life Sciences Building, introducing live animals.

A number of the day’s events tie into the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps, to which the Berkeley campus has provided more volunteers than any other university.

officer-garlick-and-molly
One kid-magnet at every Cal Day is the insider’s view of the UC Police Department. They’ll be set up in the parking lot north of Sproul Hall from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to show what they use for investigation, patrol, and safety. Visitors will be able to get inside a patrol car, check out the bomb truck, see the ways their bicycles are modified for police work, learn about other state-of-the-art vehicles, and — the real pleaser — meet one of the force’s two specially-skilled police dogs. Pictured: Officer Zoe Garlick, the UCPD’s handler for Molly (a Chocolate Labrador), will be on hand at Cal Day with her K9 colleague. (photo: Kalonica McQuesten). Related — The UCPD has released two new mobile apps that tie into its recently-updated BearWalk night safety program, one for the iPhone/iPod Touch and the other for the Android market.

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