UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ announces her retirement in 2024
An uncertain era for Cal Athletics is on the horizon.
In a long anticipated announcement, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, the first woman chancellor in Cal history, announced she will be stepping down at the conclusion of the 2023-2024 academic year (June 2024).
Christ has had a very strong tenure starting from her appointment in 2017. Here’s some more from the announcement:
When I’m closer to the end of my tenure, I look forward to sharing with all of you thoughts about my time in office, our university, and the state of higher education. For now, however, there is much work left to be done. In the months ahead I will be focusing on key initiatives and projects, including our Light the Way campaign, the new Gateway academic building, student housing, and strengthening our financial foundations. In support of those and other equally important efforts, I very much look forward to continuing the collaborations with faculty, staff, students, and alumni that make this job so thrilling and enjoyable.
I originally expected to serve as Chancellor for no more than three to five years. What I, or anyone else, never expected was a global pandemic that descended quickly upon the world and had the effect of slowing everything down, including our university’s most important efforts and endeavors. I simply could not imagine parting ways with so much left to do.
One of Carol Christ's key focuses was on improving the campus climate and fostering a sense of inclusivity and belonging. She worked to create a more diverse and equitable environment for students, faculty, and staff. Under her leadership, UC Berkeley implemented several initiatives to address issues of discrimination, harassment, and sexual violence, emphasizing the importance of creating a safe and respectful campus community.
During her tenure, Christ faced significant challenges, including budgetary constraints and the COVID-19 pandemic. She led the university through these difficult times by implementing measures to mitigate the impact of budget cuts and ensuring the health and safety of the campus community during the pandemic. She worked closely with faculty, staff, and student leaders to navigate these challenges and maintain the university's academic standing.
She ends her tenure as a chancellor who greatly supported Cal Athletics. The university took on millions of athletic debt service thanks to strong fundraising efforts, and a program in need of financial support received it at the optimal time. Her attendance at Cal sporting events (including leading several Cal cheers) was a signature part of her tenure.
If there are to be criticisms of her time as UC Berkeley chancellor, it was her strong support of Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton, who has since proven to be not quite the steadiest leader of a program in need of extreme competence. But all in all, considering the checkered history of academically-minded chancellors providing support for the athletic part of our university, Carol Christ stands very high on the list.
Hopefully Cal can find a new chancellor from a major school that understands the importance of college athletics, particularly when it comes to driving major fundraising efforts.
How will you remember Chancellor Christ?
She was an upgrade over Nicholas Dirks, whose support was lukewarm and he appeared out of his element in dealing with big time athletics.
That said, she presided over the COVID fiasco over multiple seasons which led to Cal's descent into mediocrity. She should have taken on C of B with more gusto.
The decision to save the athletic department from onerous debt service on memorial was a rather charitable move if an unavoidable one.
I must admit I skimmed over the part about her efforts towards establishing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging on campus. Every major company, including mine, is all over that. No, what I will remember is what happened to the major sports while she was chancellor. Cal is just irrelevant on that subject right now, and she was at the top of the food chain when her AD made the worst single decision I have seen since becoming a Cal football fan in the mid 80's. That being the contract extension of one Justin Wilcox after two consecutive pitiful seasons. The reverberations from that will be felt for years to come.