Undaunted, Sproul sought private funding to make up the loss and worked diligently to strengthen relations between the university and the State of California. Sproul stressed that the university should compete with the nation’s top private institutions for faculty members. Over the years, Sproul brought brilliant scholars in virtually every branch of learning to Berkeley and helped build campus facilities suitable for their work.

As the university’s academic stature grew, so did the institution’s size. Starting with the founding of UCLA in 1919, the university transitioned over the decades into what is now a statewide system of 10 campuses. Sproul’s tenure from 1930 to 1958 remains the longest of any UC president, and he led the university through an era of unprecedented growth, guiding its emergence as a major force in higher education.

When President Sproul retired in 1958, Clark Kerr Ph.D. ’39, Berkeley’s first chancellor, was appointed president of the University of California system. Kerr became an architect of the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education in California, calling for a three-tier system of two-year community colleges; four-year state universities focused on undergraduate education; and the University of California, emphasizing both undergraduate and graduate education and research.

Kerr also created an administrative structure to support the new position of chancellor and developed a campus building plan that included the construction of student housing and a new, larger student union, which received significant support from alums and friends.

This plan created the world’s strongest system of public research universities, with some considering Berkeley its unofficial flagship institution since Berkeley was where the UC system began. Berkeley is a founding member of the Association of American Universities, and it is a leading producer of Fulbright Scholars, MacArthur Fellows, and Marshall Scholars.

Since Kerr’s chancellorship, Berkeley has continued to build on its reputation as a premier public university with a deep desire to solve complex challenges facing our world. Like the concerns upon which early Builders reflected, today and tomorrow’s Builders ponder how Berkeley can leave its mark and solve the biggest issues of the times. Berkeley is ideally suited to address society’s challenges because of its belief that multiple disciplines must come together in new and novel ways. Throughout history, Builders have understood that discoveries that challenge what was previously known takes a collaborative effort.