The Strategic Landscape We’re Navigating
LIMITED FINANCIAL RESILIENCE
UC Berkeley cannot sustain business as usual. Heavy dependence on volatile state and federal funding, expenses outpacing revenues, and fragmented administrative infrastructure prevent strategic investment and drain resources from core academic work.
INADEQUATE SUPPORT FOR STUDENT SUCCESS
Berkeley admits students with diverse preparation, needs and expectations, but our systems fail to adapt. Student-to-faculty ratios are inadequate for the mentoring and educational quality our students deserve. Disjointed support services, bureaucratic hassle factors and rigid practices leave talented students without needed infrastructure. We do not communicate educational value beyond narrow career metrics, while AI is reshaping not only careers but learning itself, academic integrity and how students engage with acquiring knowledge.
INFRASTRUCTURE UNDERINVESTMENT UNDERMINES MISSION
Years of underinvestment have created an infrastructure crisis: billions in physical and seismic liabilities, deteriorating facilities and outdated systems that compromise safety, research and student experience. Berkeley loses faculty, staff and graduate students annually to other universities due to unsafe and inadequate facilities. Without strategic modernization — with investment decisions considering the next 100 years — Berkeley cannot maintain competitive standing or fulfill its public mission.
DIMINISHING CONFIDENCE IN BERKELEY’S VALUE
Public trust in higher education is eroding. Berkeley struggles to communicate our value beyond traditional stakeholders. Berkeley is perceived as elite and far removed from many Californians. Without cohesive narratives connecting our work to public priorities, we risk losing the political, financial and civic support our mission requires.
NAVIGATING AI’S IMPACT ON LEARNING AND SCHOLARSHIP
Faculty, staff and graduate student instructors lack resources to mitigate threats to academic integrity, respond to disruptions in how students learn and navigate broader educational and ethical implications. We don’t have a coordinated response to fundamental questions about AI’s role in our educational mission.
LEGACY RESEARCH MODELS
Berkeley’s research enterprise faces a convergence of threats: the bureaucratic nature of our administrative systems discourages faculty from pursuing ambitious projects, while years of deferred investment have left facilities shockingly inadequate for our stature. Most critically, federal research funding — the foundation of Berkeley’s preeminence in fundamental research — has become unreliable, leaving faculty without support. Currently, alternative funding sources don’t fill the gap at a necessary scale.