As Graduate Diversity Coordinator for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Letters & Science at the University of California, Berkeley, I am here to assist you, the prospective student. My efforts can involve contacting you (or responding to your inquiry), providing departmental information, guiding you through the admission process and more. For example, I can meet with you or communicate via telepone or e-mail, discussing questions and issues related to the admission process. I hope that you will contact me if considering graduate studies at UC Berkeley in the arts or humanities.

Bay Area Culture

The University of California, Berkeley campus is nestled in the Berkeley hills in the area refered to as the East Bay. Students live mainly in Alameda county, but may also commute from nearby Contra Costa and San Francisco counties. This three-county area has a population comprised of 3.2 million inhabitants that includes the following demographics: White/Caucasian 46.7%, Asian 20.0%, Hispanic 17.4%, Black 11.3%, Pacific Islander 0.5%, American Indian 0.3%, Other 0.3%, and two or more races/ethnicities 3.5%.

Cultural centers such as Oakland's Chinatown, and the Mission and Castro Districts of San Francisco embrace the diverse backgrounds of the region's inhabitants while multicultural events, music venues, cafes, and night spots are close at hand. Ethnic restaurants abound in the East Bay where one can find Brazilian, Cajun, Cambodian, Chinese, Ethiopian, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Moroccan, Nigerian, Thai, and vegetarian cuisines. These resources and more contribute to a thriving multicultural population in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Diversity at UC Berkeley

A diverse graduate student population is important to the UC Berkeley as both a state institution and a land grant school. Diverse graduate students conribute to the introduction of new ideas and approaches to research, expose all students to interaction with people of different backgrounds, and fulfill the state's objective to educate its inhabitants, a population more diverse than ever before. Of the 8,859 graduate students enrolled in the 2001-02 academic year, the following racial/ethnic groups were represented: White/Caucasian 4,352 (49%); Asian 1,335 (15%); Hispanic 491 (6%); African American/Black 260 (3%); Other 516 (6%); and international students 1,858 (21%). The undergraduate population is represented by an even more diverse student body, with diversity on the rise: Asian 9,451 (41%); White/Caucasian 7,137 (31%); Hispanic 2,175 (9%); African American/Black 871 (4%); other 2,735 (12%); and international students 769 (3%).

In addition to the student population, UC Berkeley is also well known for diversity of thought and its curriculum. The depth and breadth of the curricula reflect the variety of perspectives that is encouraged and celebrated at Cal. Where else would you find separate programs for East Asian, South East Asian, and Asian Studies or the possiblity of studing Slavic, Scandinavian, or Hebrew languages? Additionally, UC Berkeley students and the Berkeley community have a long tradition of social activism that continues today and often is manifest in the public arena.