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January Commencement I once met a Berkeley senior, a self-described “all-American boy,” preppily-dressed in a crew sweater, whose father, a former officer of the South Vietnamese army, had escaped at the end of the war (and never spoke of it), and had then moved the family to Albany, so that his young  son would always be in sight and mind of the University Campanile. I once interviewed an alum who grew a billion-dollar garment business, and know another who, although multi-talented, has had difficulty finding a job. I’ve met members of the Bears’ Rose Bowl-winning “Thunder Team” who subsequently fought in the Pacific, and I have a friend who graduated in the 1960s and made an award-winning documentary on World War II conscientious objectors. Alumni come from families whose names are on Bay Area plazas and streets, and they come from families who were Dust Bowl immigrants, or Oaxacan farmers, or Hong Kong merchants. My sister-in-law’s father, a Chinese-American, earned a degree in engineering at a time when their family was allowed to live only in designated neighborhoods in Berkeley. The city’s mayor is a former Rose Bowl player who fought against housing segregation. California’s history courses through Berkeley and leaves its high water-marks everywhere, on statues and in statutes, on buildings and in books, in people who came here with one idea and left with another. It is not a smooth line. To bastardize Pogo, we have met this history and it is us. California Monthly is the most widely-read magazine published at Berkeley, which is the most influential public university in the world. If that is not a slogan, but an observation, let us try for a second observation: The changes that California anticipates in the coming decades—technological, cultural, economic, demographic, environmental—will penetrate and shape all of our lives, and the lives of millions outside the state. And a third: Scholars at Berkeley will quantify these changes, debate their significance, and devise new ways to evaluate and address the challenges they present. These three observations anticipate a purpose and goal for California Monthly, one we hope has been noticeably in blossom in recent issues, and which will be formally inaugurated in January, along with a new design. We intend to create a critical center for the West’s best writers and thinkers to address what California is and is becoming, where, as Richard Rodriguez writes in an essay appearing in the inaugural issue, “opinion can be trusted to support talent or call down the falsely reasoned text.” By honestly placing Berkeley at the intellectual core of the state’s future, California Monthly will better serve the University (our chartered purpose), and the public that Berkeley itself is chartered to serve. Increasingly, in fact, the University organizes its intellectual life around public concerns—health care, energy, international relations, even traffic. An enriched intellectual discussion and public-mindedness will also allow the magazine to include the panoply of alumni beyond those 24 percent we now reach. (Research by the University of California shows that alumni identify connection to the intellectual and cultural life of the University as the most important relationship they seek with their alma mater.) These aims are commensurate with our other central purpose—to provide forums for alumni to connect to one other. A new section, “Sather Gate,” will offer many of the service features you’ve come to expect or like (including “Twisted Titles”), and some new ones. Starting this month, you’ll also be able to more expeditiously locate classmates and job opportunities on the web at calcafe.org. To review, as I have, past issues of California Monthly, published for over a century, is to relive the history of the school and the state. The magazine has changed repeatedly to reflect the times, while remaining true to certain specific core values: independence, integrity, and support for Cal. I’m convinced that the magazine now can do more to serve the University and the California public that looks to Berkeley for leadership. Indeed it must. Our shared core value is public education. State support for education has long been in decline, one among the challenges that only the best minds, working with and through the public, can address. As we renew California Monthly’s traditions, we will always look to you, arguably the most influential group of readers emanating from the West, for continued advice and support. Kerry Tremain
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