Because of the athletic connotation of Cal and the university brand of Berkeley, the recommendation of the university task force is to merge the two together.
If you can't figure out that Cal = UC Berkeley, maybe you are too stupid to go here. After all, The Band is announced as "The University of California Marching Band." /sarc
I have gear that says "Cal," gear that says "Cal Berkeley," and gear that says "U.C. Berkeley." Sounds like both the University and Athletic Dept. PR departments need to do a better job. Couldn't this be an Senior or MBA project for someone at Haas School of Business?
This could have all been avoided if that stupid fucking "You See Berkeley!" commercial had simply been fired into the sun as soon as the idea to use a pun as the pitch for our school was made... over twenty years ago
"Evolve and elevate Berkeley as the principal campus brand. Lead with Berkeley in academic, administrative, auxiliary, community, development and student life contexts, especially in naming campus units."
"Cal and Golden Bears may be used when naming athletic/fan offerings but not when naming institutional offerings."
So, basically, no change at all, outside of: awkwardly appending "Berkeley" to all our sports teams, further distancing from UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, OUR ACTUAL SCHOOL NAME (seriously, what the fuck). Athletics still the relegated bastard, with "Cal" and "Golden Bears" not to be used for institional offerings. Like bruh, if that's what "unity" means to you, I don't think you know what unity means.
Stupid, stupid idea!! This lessens the gravity of the brand for sports,. Put simply, this pours us into the basket of names like “NC Charlotte”, “Wisconsin Green Bay”, “Cal Irvine” etc. Get it straight: we are the ORIGINAL University of California. Leave it as such for sports branding. And, as far as “confusing” is concerned. this so-called difficulty is only problematic if you’ve never taken the time to actually learn what this university is. If a person can’t then discern what is Berkeley, what is Cal/California and what is the University of California, Berkeley, then why are we spending time changing (and in my mind diminishing the branding punch) for those that can’t figure it out. Enraging move. I don’t want to see “Cal Berkeley” emblazoned on the fifty yard line. There is only one CAL, and it happens to be in Berkeley. Changing our sports name as proposed by the committee would be like UGA changing its name to Georgia Athens, Virginia changing its name to Virginia Charlottesville, or Michigan changing its official sports name to “Michigan Ann Arbor - all horrible ideas. Am I in the minority?
Academics = University of California and/or University of California, Berkeley
Athletics = California and/or Cal
Why couldn't we on the athletics side simply add 'Berkeley,' with 'University of California' underneath it,(like in the UCB webpage) or just 'Berkeley,' to the uniforms? In football, we could place this on the lower back part of the helmets, where it now says 'California' in script letters, and switch the 'California' script to the front of the jersey above the number, where it currently says 'Cal.
EDIT: Also, keep the Cal script on the helmet by itself.
Agree, I don’t think melding the two is bad, but only if it is done as a minor back up alternate Jersey we wear from time to time, not the primary branding. It’s also really only an issue on the athletic since ppl don’t know that Cal means UCBerkeley. On academic side, no need to change anything I think bc ppl do understand what Berkeley refers to.
Absolutely. If the goal is to bridge the connection between the marketing used for both athletics and academics, so that more people know they are part of the same entity, it could be achieved with subtle co-branding. I believe this accomplishes the goal of making the connection for people without requiring a new way of referring to the school or the sports teams, which might upset the alumni base. As mentioned earlier, something as simple as adding 'Berkeley,' with 'University of California' underneath it on the back of the helmets, would be enough for people to understand that Cal and the University of California, Berkeley, are one and the same. You can apply this concept to general merchandise items. It's akin to when most of us have purchased a T-shirt and seen the tag stating 'Made in [insert country name],' which helps us connect the product to its origin. In this case, the connection would link to either the academics or athletics side.
The only reason why I would prefer that we did not lose the association with the name Berkeley on the academics side is because of all the historical references to the University of California in existence that used Berkeley instead at the time. Even in popular media and in films like Oppenheimer there are references to the university simply as 'Berkeley'. If that association is lost in the future perhaps those references will not be attributed to the university and thus it will not get the credit it deserves for past contributions to the world.
Just had a thought re: Boalt and Berkeley Law. In the legal world, no one batted an eye at the name change. One year it was Boalt, the next it was Berkeley Law. USNWR rankings didn’t take a hit, the pedigree remained (and remains) the same in academic circles, and the student outcomes (big law jobs, clerkships) also weren’t adversely affected.
Academic elites will adjust to calling Berkeley as California and the university will maintain the same luster. We just need to be bold enough to make that change
Add this task force to the list of people who need to be fired for incompetence.
I get what they're doing but I still have abso-fucking-lutely no clue why they insist we keep "UC Berkeley" separate from Athletics. We discover we're the only school that does that*, we create a task force to study the stupid, self-inflicted injury, and we come up with something no one's going to be happy with. Just tear down the damn barrier and be done with it. Put "Berkeley" on some away uniforms and in one of our end zones.
If these recs, somehow, create a bureaucratic loophole to use "Cal" and "Berkeley" in separate places as long as they're both present then that's cool. But that's not what I see (because UC Berkeley).
*A lot of schools are like Michigan (Ann Arbor) or Texas (Austin) where the flagship campus is implied without the city name. It's good that Berkeley has a great reputation so why not just let Athletics use it outright? No one's going to confuse the football team for the physics department.
Army had a similar branding problem. Few people knew "Army" was the U.S. Military Academy, but most people had heard of West Point. They now call themselves "Army West Point" to make the connection. I'm not sure why Navy doesn't have a simlar problem, as they are now still just "Navy", not "Navy Annapolis".
Being an old timer and purist, I prefer "California", and will to the day I die. There is no "Texas Austin", "Maryland College Park", Michigan Ann Arbor", "Oklahoma Armpit of the World" (1970s throwback there) or any other nonsense. The lesser UCs can stuff it if they feel offended.
I don't think the armed forces have satellite campuses with football teams, though your point is taken.
It would have made sense to just call the academic side The University of California instead of UC Berkeley. But the academic branding worked too well so we're stuck with it.
I hate the Cal Berkeley idea. After reading through 166 comments, I agree with most everyone that the suggestion really does not solve anything. It only cheapens our school by making it similar to over 2 dozen other schools. I don't think it's our place to educate anyone (on the intricacies and variations of our school name). If we want to elevate our branding, we just need to be consistent and strengthen the product associated with the brand. Esp. as we move into the ACC (and hopefully into the TV homes of many new sports fans), we need to keep our 155 year branding tradition of California and Cal intact! Go Bears!
What a pointless survey. We ALREADY KNEW a branding issue existed, so why on Earth did we run a poll asking people if they were confused by our branding? We ALREADY KNEW athletics prefers Cal and academia prefers Berkeley. How is it that out of all 4 suggestions, they chose the 1 we specifically DO NOT use?
IMO it's foolish that there are guidelines not allowing UC Berkeley to be mentioned in regard to athletics. California is in the full name of the school, so there shouldn't be an issue keeping the Cal moniker for sports. The academia/sports guidelines made branding LESS clear. We should be marketing that UC Berkeley = Cal, not shying away from it.
Contrarian view to most of you: I think this is fine. I am from the midwest, just travelled back there for a good stretch this summer. My observation: "Berkeley" is confused with "Berklee". "Cal" usually leads to a "which one" question. "Cal-Berkeley" is clear to everyone.
Counter-counterpoint: you can't stop total ignorance - so there will always be some rare person who says "The University of Miami... the one in Ohio, right?". Or an even better example: If I talked about how the then #10 ranked Notre Dame men's rugby barely lost against eventual national champion Navy 36-21 on 10/15/2022 - exactly zero of you would think of the correct school Notre Dame College, which ended 2022 ranked higher than the University of Notre Dame - another Catholic school off Highway 90 a four hour drive away.
If you can't figure out that Cal = UC Berkeley, maybe you are too stupid to go here. After all, The Band is announced as "The University of California Marching Band." /sarc
I have gear that says "Cal," gear that says "Cal Berkeley," and gear that says "U.C. Berkeley." Sounds like both the University and Athletic Dept. PR departments need to do a better job. Couldn't this be an Senior or MBA project for someone at Haas School of Business?
This could have all been avoided if that stupid fucking "You See Berkeley!" commercial had simply been fired into the sun as soon as the idea to use a pun as the pitch for our school was made... over twenty years ago
"Evolve and elevate Berkeley as the principal campus brand. Lead with Berkeley in academic, administrative, auxiliary, community, development and student life contexts, especially in naming campus units."
"Cal and Golden Bears may be used when naming athletic/fan offerings but not when naming institutional offerings."
So, basically, no change at all, outside of: awkwardly appending "Berkeley" to all our sports teams, further distancing from UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, OUR ACTUAL SCHOOL NAME (seriously, what the fuck). Athletics still the relegated bastard, with "Cal" and "Golden Bears" not to be used for institional offerings. Like bruh, if that's what "unity" means to you, I don't think you know what unity means.
Stupid, stupid idea!! This lessens the gravity of the brand for sports,. Put simply, this pours us into the basket of names like “NC Charlotte”, “Wisconsin Green Bay”, “Cal Irvine” etc. Get it straight: we are the ORIGINAL University of California. Leave it as such for sports branding. And, as far as “confusing” is concerned. this so-called difficulty is only problematic if you’ve never taken the time to actually learn what this university is. If a person can’t then discern what is Berkeley, what is Cal/California and what is the University of California, Berkeley, then why are we spending time changing (and in my mind diminishing the branding punch) for those that can’t figure it out. Enraging move. I don’t want to see “Cal Berkeley” emblazoned on the fifty yard line. There is only one CAL, and it happens to be in Berkeley. Changing our sports name as proposed by the committee would be like UGA changing its name to Georgia Athens, Virginia changing its name to Virginia Charlottesville, or Michigan changing its official sports name to “Michigan Ann Arbor - all horrible ideas. Am I in the minority?
I was hoping for BerCALey
Fine. Now let’s win some games!! That will clear up any confusion
Exactly.
I prefer to keep things the way they are now.
Academics = University of California and/or University of California, Berkeley
Athletics = California and/or Cal
Why couldn't we on the athletics side simply add 'Berkeley,' with 'University of California' underneath it,(like in the UCB webpage) or just 'Berkeley,' to the uniforms? In football, we could place this on the lower back part of the helmets, where it now says 'California' in script letters, and switch the 'California' script to the front of the jersey above the number, where it currently says 'Cal.
EDIT: Also, keep the Cal script on the helmet by itself.
Agree, I don’t think melding the two is bad, but only if it is done as a minor back up alternate Jersey we wear from time to time, not the primary branding. It’s also really only an issue on the athletic since ppl don’t know that Cal means UCBerkeley. On academic side, no need to change anything I think bc ppl do understand what Berkeley refers to.
Absolutely. If the goal is to bridge the connection between the marketing used for both athletics and academics, so that more people know they are part of the same entity, it could be achieved with subtle co-branding. I believe this accomplishes the goal of making the connection for people without requiring a new way of referring to the school or the sports teams, which might upset the alumni base. As mentioned earlier, something as simple as adding 'Berkeley,' with 'University of California' underneath it on the back of the helmets, would be enough for people to understand that Cal and the University of California, Berkeley, are one and the same. You can apply this concept to general merchandise items. It's akin to when most of us have purchased a T-shirt and seen the tag stating 'Made in [insert country name],' which helps us connect the product to its origin. In this case, the connection would link to either the academics or athletics side.
I could see someday, when this confusion is resolved, both the academics and athletics become California, like Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, etc.
The only reason why I would prefer that we did not lose the association with the name Berkeley on the academics side is because of all the historical references to the University of California in existence that used Berkeley instead at the time. Even in popular media and in films like Oppenheimer there are references to the university simply as 'Berkeley'. If that association is lost in the future perhaps those references will not be attributed to the university and thus it will not get the credit it deserves for past contributions to the world.
Just had a thought re: Boalt and Berkeley Law. In the legal world, no one batted an eye at the name change. One year it was Boalt, the next it was Berkeley Law. USNWR rankings didn’t take a hit, the pedigree remained (and remains) the same in academic circles, and the student outcomes (big law jobs, clerkships) also weren’t adversely affected.
Academic elites will adjust to calling Berkeley as California and the university will maintain the same luster. We just need to be bold enough to make that change
I agree.
Historical revision (and renaming) seems an insatiable appetite for political manipulation of the past.
I completely agree about the Warren Commission.
What a non-sequitur lol
It's a school for people who can hold two or more conflicting ideas in their heads at the same time. Our names reflect that. Don't dumb it down.
Add this task force to the list of people who need to be fired for incompetence.
I get what they're doing but I still have abso-fucking-lutely no clue why they insist we keep "UC Berkeley" separate from Athletics. We discover we're the only school that does that*, we create a task force to study the stupid, self-inflicted injury, and we come up with something no one's going to be happy with. Just tear down the damn barrier and be done with it. Put "Berkeley" on some away uniforms and in one of our end zones.
If these recs, somehow, create a bureaucratic loophole to use "Cal" and "Berkeley" in separate places as long as they're both present then that's cool. But that's not what I see (because UC Berkeley).
*A lot of schools are like Michigan (Ann Arbor) or Texas (Austin) where the flagship campus is implied without the city name. It's good that Berkeley has a great reputation so why not just let Athletics use it outright? No one's going to confuse the football team for the physics department.
Only Tobias Funke could have come up with a dumber idea.
This task force just blued themselves.
Army had a similar branding problem. Few people knew "Army" was the U.S. Military Academy, but most people had heard of West Point. They now call themselves "Army West Point" to make the connection. I'm not sure why Navy doesn't have a simlar problem, as they are now still just "Navy", not "Navy Annapolis".
Being an old timer and purist, I prefer "California", and will to the day I die. There is no "Texas Austin", "Maryland College Park", Michigan Ann Arbor", "Oklahoma Armpit of the World" (1970s throwback there) or any other nonsense. The lesser UCs can stuff it if they feel offended.
I don't think the armed forces have satellite campuses with football teams, though your point is taken.
It would have made sense to just call the academic side The University of California instead of UC Berkeley. But the academic branding worked too well so we're stuck with it.
I hate the Cal Berkeley idea. After reading through 166 comments, I agree with most everyone that the suggestion really does not solve anything. It only cheapens our school by making it similar to over 2 dozen other schools. I don't think it's our place to educate anyone (on the intricacies and variations of our school name). If we want to elevate our branding, we just need to be consistent and strengthen the product associated with the brand. Esp. as we move into the ACC (and hopefully into the TV homes of many new sports fans), we need to keep our 155 year branding tradition of California and Cal intact! Go Bears!
Want to fix the branding issue? Just win baby. That simple.
Losing sucks. Win. Again. Again.Again. Again. Again. See the trend?
Eventually no branding issue. And just to be real, “ don’t suck” doesn’t work.
What a pointless survey. We ALREADY KNEW a branding issue existed, so why on Earth did we run a poll asking people if they were confused by our branding? We ALREADY KNEW athletics prefers Cal and academia prefers Berkeley. How is it that out of all 4 suggestions, they chose the 1 we specifically DO NOT use?
IMO it's foolish that there are guidelines not allowing UC Berkeley to be mentioned in regard to athletics. California is in the full name of the school, so there shouldn't be an issue keeping the Cal moniker for sports. The academia/sports guidelines made branding LESS clear. We should be marketing that UC Berkeley = Cal, not shying away from it.
Right, but they don’t, they have no business assuming membership on the task force.
Do we know the names of those on the task force?
Contrarian view to most of you: I think this is fine. I am from the midwest, just travelled back there for a good stretch this summer. My observation: "Berkeley" is confused with "Berklee". "Cal" usually leads to a "which one" question. "Cal-Berkeley" is clear to everyone.
Counter-counterpoint: you can't stop total ignorance - so there will always be some rare person who says "The University of Miami... the one in Ohio, right?". Or an even better example: If I talked about how the then #10 ranked Notre Dame men's rugby barely lost against eventual national champion Navy 36-21 on 10/15/2022 - exactly zero of you would think of the correct school Notre Dame College, which ended 2022 ranked higher than the University of Notre Dame - another Catholic school off Highway 90 a four hour drive away.
https://rugbyhawk.com/rankings.html