Access & Excellence

Chancellor’s award is a boost to students without parents

By Wendy Edelstein

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau (John Blaustein photo)

Fall 2008 | This summer, the Carnegie Corporation named Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau the recipient of its 2008 Academic Leadership Award, citing him as a higher-education "visionary" and "champion of excellence and equity in education."

The honor includes a grant of $500,000 to the campus, for Birgeneau to use to advance his academic priorities. On learning of the award, the chancellor immediately allocated $50,000 of the prize to seed an endowment for the Cal Independent Scholars Network (CISN), a campus program that supports and provides resources to undergraduates who are former foster youth, orphaned, or otherwise without parental aid.

The Carnegie award annually goes to university leaders whose commitment to academic excellence and visionary leadership establish new standards for U.S. higher education.

Birgeneau and co-recipient Nancy Cantor, chancellor and president of Syracuse University, have created for students an "academic experience aimed not just at sustaining America's world-class system of higher education, but [at] transforming it to equip students for success in a global-knowledge economy," said Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

"Recognizing that higher education is for many families the gateway to the American Dream — the principal means of achieving social mobility — Birgeneau and Cantor have implemented programs in their respective communities to improve college readiness," Gregorian said. He added that both are leading advocates for increased access to quality higher education, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Commitment to all students

The chancellor has been a staunch supporter of the independent students program, founded and developed in 2005 by student-services staff members Michelle Kniffin and Nancy Jurich, who saw the challenges faced by students who arrive at Berkeley without the support of parents. (Read a 2007 Letter Home story on the program.)

"I am so impressed and inspired by these students," says Birgeneau. "They faced obstacles and substantial financial challenges to gain admittance to Berkeley and to succeed. I am delighted to invest funds from the Carnegie award to provide them the backing they need to excel here. I hope that others will follow my example and contribute to this fund."

Unexpected growth

In its first year, the program relied on donations from campus staff members and alumni champion Fred Selinger '61 to help 13 students jumpstart their Berkeley careers with necessities —
a backpack, new bedding, a lamp, towels, a robe and slippers. Each student also was paired with a peer "buddy," as well as with a faculty, staff, or parent mentor.

The grassroots project has grown, in large part thanks to a remarkable gift of $250,000 from Cal Parents Board vice chairs Gary and Allison Beckman. (The Beckmans' sons Nick '09 and Jonathan '12 are Cal students; their eldest, Alex '06, is an alumnus.)

Early this year the Beckmans' gift inspired Coleman Fung '87 to make a $1 million commitment to establish an endowment to support the CISN into the future. Fung is a co-chair of The Campaign for Berkeley.

 "The Beckmans are my role models in this," the chancellor says. "What their generosity is doing today is truly wonderful."

With 42 students now being served by the program, the Beckmans' gift has helped fund a part-time staff member — a fellow Cal parent — to manage the effort. Deborah Lowe Martinez '76, a child-welfare attorney, first read about the program in Letter Home and volunteered as a mentor. Instead, she ended up hired as the program coordinator in May 2007. (Her son, Alex '09, is a classics major.)

The income from the endowment created by the chancellor's gift and others will help students with their unmet financial needs, says Martinez. "We attempt to identify the students with the most need," she says, and the program helps within the limits of its resources. The chancellor's gift also will help pay for furnishings, books and supplies, medical and dental expenses, assistance with meal plans, computer and printer repairs, and software.

See more on the chancellor's Carnegie award.