I was consulted on this by California Hall. Here is what I said---"this is a solution searching for a problem." They told me the athletes were "feeling left out" and not included. My son, who is a current student at Cal or Berkeley or UC (and a big fan of the sports) program--said it well: "Fuck their feelings and they need to get over i…
I was consulted on this by California Hall. Here is what I said---"this is a solution searching for a problem." They told me the athletes were "feeling left out" and not included. My son, who is a current student at Cal or Berkeley or UC (and a big fan of the sports) program--said it well: "Fuck their feelings and they need to get over it."
California Hall then said--we were the only school in the nation that had different brands for sports and academics. I pointed out that West Point, Army and USMA are three different brands and people know all three and are fine with that.
Second, I lived overseas in 7 countries. I always said I went to Berkeley. Almost no one knew it was affiliated with the state of California or a "UC". So for academics, it will always be Berkeley or UC Berkeley. You can not change that nor should you change that.
Third---other than football--the sports teams use California on their uniforms. Why not use California? They said, Oakland (UC office of the President) requires all UCs to be "equal" and so we can't use the exclusive University of California or just California. I said that is pure BS--as all of the UCs understand the pecking order here. Even UCLA. You can't cancel tradition or history (actually you can {see, Barrows Hall}, but my point is---you should not).
They said back in the spring they were leaning towards Cal-Berkeley. I said, that makes it sound like Cal State Fullerton!?! But they were getting strong resistance from the AD, the Big C org and every athletic alum to use that term. Now California Hall is "recommending" it. So something happen between spring and the release. I guess the AD needed to choose his battles---like getting us to the ACC (Thank God!).
My view---so what that there are three different names. Who is hurt here?? Call the teams California or Cal. Every one who follows athletics knows who Cal is. Everyone who follows academics will always call it Berkeley. We are all smart enough, as we graduated from the #1 university to know the difference and to use three different names.
Let me throw an issue that I find crazy. The name "Berkeley". With cancel culture in full swing, there is a group out there that wants to cancel him (if you need to ask why, google him). California Hall is aware of it and it's position is--we are named after the City of Berkeley--so we will not change our name unless the City changes the name. That is a great position.....but what worries me is, the City of Berkeley is crazy enough to do that! So all of this "Berkeley" business may be a moot point. We may all have to say one day, that we went to the University of California, Xučyun
Where does this leave us. For now, when I am cheering for my Golden Bears! In teh stands, I say "California!" (I personally like the full name--just like Joe Starkey). When people ask where I went to school, I will always say Berkeley. When my son, needs to get something like paperwork from the administration, he calls it UC: "Dad, the UC tuition deadline is tomorrow" So there you have it---in this house, we use three different terms and everyone gets it. This is not an issue.
While I have an audience, I would like to see either the Golden Bear or C on the helmets instead of Cal.
So I guess my question is, is cal really worried about brand confusion and athletes feeling left out, or is this a bunch of bullshit being pushed on us by the uc office of the president. The conspiracy theorist in me weeks ago said “I bet this is some shit they’ll try to tie to our calimony payment from ucla.” That seemed ridiculous, but now I’m not so sure.
You are on to something on the UCOP. As background, my meeting was back in the Spring. What concerned me at first was not that this was UCOP, but this was being driven by the athletes not feeling they were part of the campus and California Hall felt the need to address. As I said above when I told my son, he laughed and they---the athletes needed to get over it. My son also did not believe it was a large sample size.
Where is the UCOP may be causing issues you ask? They are against us using the "California" and the "University of California" exclusively by Berkeley. They don't want to hurt the other campus' feelings and have Berkeley be "more elite" than them. This in a nutshell is why society has problems as because no one wants to hurt other peoples feelings.
My view is---keep California on the uniforms. I would even change the football helmets and have either a Golden Bear or "C" or California spelled out. If we did that, then the media--like ESPN will use the new logos of "C" or California when they report us. It will take a few years, but it can work. I mean, if you look at the field now, it says California and on the sidelines, the University of California. Fuck the UCOP.
That's just wonderful. I love where we're at in society. Not feeling elite enough? Maybe work harder to build your profile? Nahhhh, let's just knock Cal down a couple pegs. What a bunch of horseshit. Part of me feels better that at least maybe this nonsense wasn't started by the Cal administration. At any rate, I will continue to proudly proclaim I graduated from the University of California or Cal until the fucking day I die.
I was consulted on this by California Hall. Here is what I said---"this is a solution searching for a problem." They told me the athletes were "feeling left out" and not included. My son, who is a current student at Cal or Berkeley or UC (and a big fan of the sports) program--said it well: "Fuck their feelings and they need to get over it."
California Hall then said--we were the only school in the nation that had different brands for sports and academics. I pointed out that West Point, Army and USMA are three different brands and people know all three and are fine with that.
Second, I lived overseas in 7 countries. I always said I went to Berkeley. Almost no one knew it was affiliated with the state of California or a "UC". So for academics, it will always be Berkeley or UC Berkeley. You can not change that nor should you change that.
Third---other than football--the sports teams use California on their uniforms. Why not use California? They said, Oakland (UC office of the President) requires all UCs to be "equal" and so we can't use the exclusive University of California or just California. I said that is pure BS--as all of the UCs understand the pecking order here. Even UCLA. You can't cancel tradition or history (actually you can {see, Barrows Hall}, but my point is---you should not).
They said back in the spring they were leaning towards Cal-Berkeley. I said, that makes it sound like Cal State Fullerton!?! But they were getting strong resistance from the AD, the Big C org and every athletic alum to use that term. Now California Hall is "recommending" it. So something happen between spring and the release. I guess the AD needed to choose his battles---like getting us to the ACC (Thank God!).
My view---so what that there are three different names. Who is hurt here?? Call the teams California or Cal. Every one who follows athletics knows who Cal is. Everyone who follows academics will always call it Berkeley. We are all smart enough, as we graduated from the #1 university to know the difference and to use three different names.
Let me throw an issue that I find crazy. The name "Berkeley". With cancel culture in full swing, there is a group out there that wants to cancel him (if you need to ask why, google him). California Hall is aware of it and it's position is--we are named after the City of Berkeley--so we will not change our name unless the City changes the name. That is a great position.....but what worries me is, the City of Berkeley is crazy enough to do that! So all of this "Berkeley" business may be a moot point. We may all have to say one day, that we went to the University of California, Xučyun
Where does this leave us. For now, when I am cheering for my Golden Bears! In teh stands, I say "California!" (I personally like the full name--just like Joe Starkey). When people ask where I went to school, I will always say Berkeley. When my son, needs to get something like paperwork from the administration, he calls it UC: "Dad, the UC tuition deadline is tomorrow" So there you have it---in this house, we use three different terms and everyone gets it. This is not an issue.
While I have an audience, I would like to see either the Golden Bear or C on the helmets instead of Cal.
So I guess my question is, is cal really worried about brand confusion and athletes feeling left out, or is this a bunch of bullshit being pushed on us by the uc office of the president. The conspiracy theorist in me weeks ago said “I bet this is some shit they’ll try to tie to our calimony payment from ucla.” That seemed ridiculous, but now I’m not so sure.
You are on to something on the UCOP. As background, my meeting was back in the Spring. What concerned me at first was not that this was UCOP, but this was being driven by the athletes not feeling they were part of the campus and California Hall felt the need to address. As I said above when I told my son, he laughed and they---the athletes needed to get over it. My son also did not believe it was a large sample size.
Where is the UCOP may be causing issues you ask? They are against us using the "California" and the "University of California" exclusively by Berkeley. They don't want to hurt the other campus' feelings and have Berkeley be "more elite" than them. This in a nutshell is why society has problems as because no one wants to hurt other peoples feelings.
My view is---keep California on the uniforms. I would even change the football helmets and have either a Golden Bear or "C" or California spelled out. If we did that, then the media--like ESPN will use the new logos of "C" or California when they report us. It will take a few years, but it can work. I mean, if you look at the field now, it says California and on the sidelines, the University of California. Fuck the UCOP.
That's just wonderful. I love where we're at in society. Not feeling elite enough? Maybe work harder to build your profile? Nahhhh, let's just knock Cal down a couple pegs. What a bunch of horseshit. Part of me feels better that at least maybe this nonsense wasn't started by the Cal administration. At any rate, I will continue to proudly proclaim I graduated from the University of California or Cal until the fucking day I die.