Berkeley

‘We Have a Space!’ – Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center Opens at UC Berkeley

Published

9 years ago

February 24, 2017

By Sandra Messick, UC Berkeley News

The standing-room-only crowd was blessed by Corrina Gould, a member of the indigenous Chochenyo and Kerkin Ohlone, and Auntie Stella, a long-time teacher and resident of Oakland. They were entertained with music, songs and remembrances.

“I was a student here many, many years ago,” said Yvette Gullatt, vice provost and chief outreach officer at the University of California Office of the President’s Office of Diversity and Engagement.

Gullat recalled her years as a student at Berkeley: “There was nowhere for me to go, nowhere for me to find community, nowhere to meet people and reach out — part of what college is all about — so I retreated to Moffitt.”

The Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center, located in the Hearst Field Annex, is named after the civil rights activist who was involved with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s.

Part of the AASD, the center will be a space where Berkeley’s Black students can come together, something that is very important to this student population, which makes up just 3 percent of the student body.

Out of 29,310 undergraduates, 947 are African Americans; among 10,863 graduate students, 405 are African Americans.

“Having a space where students can come and be a community with each other is really important,” stresses Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion Na’ilah Nasir, who graduated from Berkeley in 1993 when the number of Black students was at a high.

“Having a critical mass of African American students meant there was a very robust, supportive community on campus intellectually and socially. Students were able to have a complete experience.”

The resource center will also provide academic, social and cultural, and professional development services and resources.

“I hope the center will help black students not only be retained but also graduate and matriculate through the university as well as help prepare them for the next steps in their lives,” said Blake Simons, the community development specialist at AASD who was project manager for the center’s creation.

“We’re in a moment right now where this administration wants to turn back all the things that we have worked for over the years,” said Leigh Raiford, an associate professor and graduate adviser in the Department of African American Studies.

“It’s so important that think about all of the ways that we are empowered in the differences in our blackness, making space for our LGBTQ, non-gender, non-conforming, for our Muslim brothers and sisters, for all of us, for all the different ways that we are black.”

The community that came to celebrate and mark this occasion acknowledged and thanked the students for the hard work they did to make the Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center a reality.

“The thing I think that this space represents and reminds us moving forward is that organizing works. Activism works. Advocating together and in concert for what you need and for what you earn and what you deserve, it works and it’s important and we will continue to do that,” said Raiford.

The center is now open to the campus community.

“When you come to our events, you’re going to get a cultural experience, an experience of how we operate at Cal, how we celebrate our blackness, how we celebrate our joy,” said Simons.

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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

3 days 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.

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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.