Berkeley

UC Berkeley Takes Home 5 Higher Ed Sustainability Awards

Published

7 years ago

July 20, 2019

In a nod toward the campus’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2025, UC Berkeley took home five best practice awards Tuesday, July 9, at the annual California Higher Education Sustainability Conference (CHESC) in Santa Barbara.

“Every initiative that was recognized with an award started with an idea to do something new that would make a real environmental improvement and expand understanding,” says Kira Stoll, director of sustainability at UC Berkeley. “These best practice programs all required engagement of many people and time and were mostly done with just seed funding. I think each of these initiatives will continue to grow.”

Also, Berkeley’s program, The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), was a finalist for the Green Gown Student Engagement Award, hosted by a partnership with the United Nations.

Here’s a brief overview of the work that won CHESC awards:

A curriculum with solutions for a sustainable future

In an effort to educate people about how to address climate change, student Sage Lenier, a fourth-year conservation and resource studies major, won an award for a curriculum she wrote, “Zero Waste: Solutions for a Sustainable Future,” about the science of modern landfills, the history of “trash” and how we can all reduce personal waste, among other topics. The curriculum, which Lenier has taught for the past three semesters in a student-led DeCal course, is a resource that she says gives everyone a practical guide on how we can apply existing strategies to reduce waste. “Trash is a human invention,” she says. “There are solutions. We just have to implement them.” Lenier’s long-term goal is to have her course be a regular part of the curriculum at all University of California campuses.

Students of color environmental conference

The Students of Color Environmental Collective hosted a free, all-day environmental justice conference in February to create and support a movement to amplify the voices of underrepresented people. “The environmental movement can often be an alienating space that fails to prioritize and (re)center dialogue and action around communities of color and other marginalized groups most impacted by environmental degradation,” wrote the collective on the group’s Facebook page.

Campaign to create an herbicide-free UC

To inspire the University of California system to rethink its reliance on toxic herbicides in grounds management, Berkeley alumna Mackenzie Feldman launched the campaign Herbicide-Free UC, now called Herbicide-Free Campus. The campaign is already at UC Riverside, UC Davis, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, and has led to UC President Janet Napolitano temporarily banning glyphosate on all 10 campuses. The group is now working with Napolitano to make the ban permanent and to transition away from using all toxic herbicides. Herbicide-Free Campus has expanded nationally, with the mission of eliminating toxic herbicides from every school nationwide.

Chou Hall: the country’s greenest academic building

Connie and Kevin Chou Hall, home to Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, is the first academic building in the nation to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s TRUE Zero Waste Platinum Certification. “We’re breaking new ground with Chou Hall,” said Walter Hallanan, a Berkeley alumnus who managed the Chou Hall project, in a Haas Newsroom story. “The certification process included community and campus engagement and communication, operational coordination, metrics and reporting, and leadership support. It serves as our campus’ beacon for zero waste buildings moving forward.”

“Coolest UC” in the Cool Campus Challenge

In the 2019 Cool Campus Challenge, Berkeley came in first as the “Coolest UC,” reporting the most carbon-saving points of any of the UC campuses and medical center. With more than 4,200 participants — nearly 8% of the campus — Berkeley saved a combined 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. That’s the same decrease in CO2 as taking 500 cars off the road for a whole year.

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Bay Area

UC Berkeley Named Top Public University in the U.S. and No. 7 in the World by ‘U.S. News’

Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014. “A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Photo by Keegan Houser/UC Berkeley.

The 2026 Best Global Universities rankings evaluated 2,250 research institutions from more than 100 countries

By Lila Thulin

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Berkeley No. 7 in its 2026 list of the best global universities, which assesses more than 2,250 research institutions worldwide.

Berkeley also claimed the honor of top public university in the U.S.

Released on Monday, the list evaluates universities from more than 100 countries on 13 metrics such as global and research reputation (as reported by academics and peers) and number of highly cited scholarly papers.

Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014.

“A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.

The rankings also assess a university’s strength in various subject areas; these assessments are separate from U.S. News’ 2026 Best Graduate Programs rankings released in April.

This year, Berkeley was named in the top three nationally in seven subject areas – environment/ecology, ecology, water resources, physics, computer science, chemistry, and engineering – and in the top five for a total of 17 subjects. Subject rankings are based heavily on scholarly publications and citations as well as reputation.

In September, U.S. News also released its 2026 Best Colleges list, in which Berkeley was also named the No. 1 public institution among American universities.

That honor joins other accolades judging campus to be the best public university in the country, such as those from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education.

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Farwest Region Deltas Celebrate Centennial With “September Breakfast” Honoring Vivian Osborne Marsh

The region was established in 1925 under the leadership of Vivian Osborne Marsh, who became its first Regional Director. Marsh was a pioneering scholar and civic leader, earning recognition as the first Black woman to receive both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley.

Published

10 months ago

September 14, 2025

Oakland Post

Farwest Regional Director, Kimberly Usher, Mayor Barbara Lee, US Representative Lateefah Simon, and Farwest Regional Representative, Radiya Ajibade. Photo courtesy of Farwest Regional Photographer Vicki P. Love.

By Antoinette Porter

Hundreds of members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and their guests gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley, to mark the 100th anniversary of the sorority’s Farwest Region.

Marsh went on to serve as Delta Sigma Theta’s 7th National President, where she launched the sorority’s National Library Project to expand access to books in underserved Black communities in the South. During her presidency, the organization also became a prominent voice in the civil rights movement, lobbying Congress to pass anti-lynching legislation.

Bak in the Bay Area, Marsh devoted her career to advancing educational opportunities, mentoring young people, and strengthening community life. That commitment continues to shape the region, which supports initiatives in education, social justice, and economic development. Current projects include raising scholarship funds for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, voter education campaigns, and health and wellness programs.

A century after its founding, the Farwest Region of Delta Sigma Theta remains active across California and other western states, carrying forward Marsh’s vision of service and advocacy.

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Arts and Culture

Cal Performances Presents Angélique Kidjo & Yo-Yo Ma in Sarabande Africaine at UC Berkeley Greek Theatre on Aug. 30

On Saturday, Aug. 30, the pair will debut the Bay Area premiere of Sarabande Africaine, joined by pianist Thierry Vaton, percussionist David Donatien, and special guest Sinkane. The program illuminates centuries of musical interplay between African traditions and Western classical forms, using the Baroque sarabande dance, and its African ancestor, the Congolese spirit dance Zarabanda, as a gateway to exploring the deep, interconnected roots of global music.

Published

10 months ago

August 25, 2025

Oakland Post

Angelique Kidjo and Yo-Yo Ma. Wikimedia photos.

By Carla Thomas

On Labor Day weekend two of the world’s most celebrated musicians and cultural ambassadors, Grammy Award–winning vocalist Angélique Kidjo and legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma join forces for an evening of music, history, and cultural dialogue at UC Berkeley’s historic Hearst Greek Theatre.

Both Kidjo and Ma have built careers not only as great performers but as passionate advocates for cultural understanding. Sarabande Africaine is as much a conversation about shared heritage as it is a musical performance, blending genres, geographies, and histories.

“Every day there are moments when all of us can feel we are on the inside of something and also when we feel we are on the outside of something,” said Yo-Yo Ma. “To be able to understand both at the same time and oscillate between the two gives us a larger perspective on the world.”

“If your mind is open, and there is no fear, it’s easier to listen, and to question yourself,” said Kidjo.

The upcoming performance is presented within Cal Performances’ Illuminations: “Exile & Sanctuary” series for the 2025–26 season. The production explores exile as more than just physical displacement, but a disruption in identity and belonging, while sanctuary represents both refuge and the creative space where new connections and communities can take shape.

Cal Performances’ Illuminations bridges performances with UC Berkeley’s academic research, pairing the arts with conversations about urgent global issues.

Kidjo’s continued partnership with Cal Performances includes her 2021–22 artist-in-residence, premiering her music-theater work Yemandja, set in 19th-century West Africa during the transatlantic slave trade.

She also participated in the Bias in Our Algorithms and Society panel alongside campus leaders like Jennifer Chayes, and joined the Black Studies Collaboratory for a dialogue on music, diaspora, and the world.

She has since returned to Berkeley for multiple performances, most recently in 2024 at Zellerbach Hall.

Yo-Yo Ma’s history with Cal Performances spans decades, beginning in 1997. One notable project includes the 2018 performance of Bach’s complete cello suites at the Greek Theatre, a testament to his devotion to creating “transformative concert experiences in iconic spaces.”

For tickets and more information, visit calperformances.org.