What's in a name? UC Berkeley forms task force on name identity.

[bcla]

This was always a weird. Having grown up in the area and gone to school there, the identity was always kind of weird. I'd heard of so many different forms of the school's identity - Cal, UC Berkeley, Cal-Berkeley, etc. A lot of identifiers said just "Berkeley" and quite a few people just know it as that, even if the city of Berkeley doesn't appreciate it. I have some Chinese friends and their translation is literally "Berkeley big school" (伯克利大学 - pronounced Bókèlì Dàxué).

The athletic department just goes by "California" or "Cal" which has led to any number of different misunderstandings. I heard about the trip to the 1992 Florida Citrus Bowl against Clemson, where several Clemson fans started asking Cal fans "So where is Cal?" I remember a college basketball forum where there was one kid being recruited and it was between three programs including Cal. Somehow the conversation went into academics, and there was a fan of one of the other programs vying for his signing saying "Well it's not like Cal is UCLA or UC Berkeley" and man did people let this guy have it. But over the years the athletic success had gotten better (especially with Jeff Tedford as the football head coach) and there were several nationally televised football games.

https://chancellor.berkeley.edu/berkeleycal-identity-task-force

This image kind of says it all about this campus multiple identity disorder:

https://chancellor.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/identity_task_force_charge_letter.pdf​

Background​

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UC Berkeley was originally named the University of California and wasn’t reorganized into a system of campuses until 84 years later. Various forms of the campus’ original identity as the University of California, such as the nicknames “California” and “Cal” have endured to this day and are steeped in tradition.​

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Over the years, the campus has assumed two distinct identities: UC Berkeley and Cal. UC Berkeley is most often associated with academics and research. Cal is most often associated with athletics but is also an important part of the identity for alumni, students, faculty and staff. Some have said that UC Berkeley is the head and Cal is the heart of the institution.​

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Over the years, several decisions have been made that further separated the two identities. Current guidelines preclude the mixing of Berkeley and Cal marks and names and the word “bears” and imagery of bears is not allowed to be mixed with the Berkeley name.​

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Challenges​

1. Having two distinct identities for one entity is highly problematic from a branding perspective. This would be akin to Apple being known simultaneously as “Mac” and “iPhone” without the Apple brand to associate the two. Some people do not realize that UC Berkeley and Cal are the same university, which means that the breadth of the institution is lost on some people. Others may know that it is one university but continue to form independent associations with each name due to the way the identity is bifurcated.
2. Current guidelines preclude campus (non Intercollegiate Athletics) units from using the Cal name and marks and disallow the use of the word “bears” or bear imagery with the Berkeley name. This leads to a great deal of confusion and frustration as many people within UC Berkeley consider the names Berkeley and Cal to be interchangeable and are surprised when they learn that they cannot use “Cal” or bears in their name. Sometimes departments do not learn that they are in violation of these rules until many years later.
3. Having two distinct identities has interfered with efforts to create a sense of belonging on campus. Some students, such as student athletes, feel excluded from the UC Berkeley identity because they’re only allowed to use Cal in athletics contexts. Similarly, multiple affinity groups have expressed concerns that current restrictions on the use of the Cal name hinder their equity and inclusion efforts.

 

[DLgal]

They should just go by UC Berkeley, like all the other UCs.

 

[NYC_MW]

Even as a non-athlete alum, always considered myself a Cal bear (who went to UC Berkeley). Guess I do have identity issues

 

[bcla]

They should just go by UC Berkeley, like all the other UCs.

There were always these offshoots when there was legally just one University of California. The Southern Branch which became UCLA. The University Farm became UC Davis. The Medical Department became UCSF. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography was kind of the basis for UCSD.

A lot of the history is really because there was only one University of California.

 

[barkley]

we always referred to it as 'cal' or 'berzerkley'

 

[sasywtch]

Berkeley has bigger things to worry about than if people call it UCBerkeley or Cal.