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Zona Roberts (Courtesy of the Roberts family)

Meet Zona Roberts

By Martin Snapp

Nowadays, people look back on the 1950s as the Happy Days, but for the kids who grew up during that time, it was anything but. Hovering over them were the twin terrors of The Bomb and a raging polio epidemic. One victim of the latter was Zona and Verne Roberts’ eldest son, Ed.

(Alyssa Case '18)

Saving a Language from Extinction

By Madeline Taub

90-year-old Berkeley alumna Rebecca Contopoulou speaks Greek, Italian, French, English, Spanish, and another language that sounds a lot like Spanish but is actually Ladino, a Sephardic language that traces its origins to Medieval Spain.

The Pelican Building (Margie Cullen)

Seamus Heaney in Berkeley

By Edward O’Shea

Many Berkeleyans know that Nobel Prize-winning poet Czeslaw Milosz taught at Cal for many years. Fewer likely remember that his fellow laureate Seamus Heaney.

(Margie Cullen)

California’s Holiday Gift Guide

By Margie Cullen

The holidays are rapidly approaching, and if you’re anything like me, you have no idea what to get your family members. Mom has so many sweaters already, Grandpa has all the cookbooks in the world, and what does a 19-year-old even want? Well, luckily for us, Cal has a wealth of grads who make products perfect for gift giving, be it stocking stuffers or statement presents.

(Marcus Hanschen)

The Push to Abolish Cars on Telegraph

By Margie Cullen

On a Sunday in September, Telegraph Avenue looked a little different.

(Illustration by Monica Hellström)

Cheered Up: You Can Be a Dancer and a Lawyer

By Rachel Schuster ’17, J.D. ’23 as told to Margie Cullen, M.J. ’22

When I was really young, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

11 Things You’ll Never Believe Came Out of Berkeley!

By Pat Joseph

Yeah, okay, you’ll probably believe some of it. Still, we think it’s a fun list.

Clark Kerr [l], former President of the University of California, leaves a meeting of the Board of Regents after they fired him at Governor Ronald Reagan's insistence. (Ted Streshinsky/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Winter Issue’s Editor’s Note

By Pat Joseph

“The University is not engaged in making ideas safe for students. It is engaged in making students safe for ideas.”

Highlighting boundaries: What makes a “safe space” safe? (nadia bormotova/istock)

Trouble with Safe Spaces

By Dhoha Bareche

Last Summer on Reddit, someone posted a picture of the house rules at the Person of Color Berkeley Student Cooperative, also called Castro House, that stated “white guests are not allowed in common spaces.”

(COURTESY OF TAMARA KEITH)

A White House Correspondent, A Vet, and Cal’s Mic Men

By Martin Snapp

Columnist Martin Snapp shares alumni’s stories.

Coming Soon: The Gateway, future home to Computing, Data Science, and Society. (Weiss/Manfredi)

Letter from Berkeley’s Chancellor

By Chancellor Carol T. Christ

Our university’s return to the full range of in-person research, teaching, learning, and extracurricular activities has helped to confirm what we have long believed: All that we do, and all that we are, is supported and enhanced by the thousands of daily collaborations and interactions among members of our community.

Dania Matos (Brittany Hosea-Small)

How Berkeley is Improving Equity and Inclusion

By Lizeth De La Luz

Five Questions with Dania Matos, Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion