Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
end with a discussion of the messy student protests for freedom of speech,
in 1969, that resulted in the death of a student protester.
Although the university is renowned for the radicalism of its students,
that label is mostly left over from the 1960s. It still operates under an
uneasy alliance between conservative administration and liberal enrollees;
a recent controversial development was British Petroleum's $500-million
contract with the school for its programs to help develop alternative fuels
that the company would, in turn, own.
To ascend the 307-foot-tall
Sather
(
Say
-ther)
Tower,
or the Campanile,
pay $2. Like so many observation towers, its elevator stops short of the
top, leaving the last 38 steps for you to navigate. Hours are funny: Monday
through Friday 10am to 4pm, Saturday 10am to 5pm, and Sunday 10am to
1:30pm and 3 to 5pm. Its 61-bell carillon performs concerts daily at
7:50am, noon, and 6pm, and the week's longest concert is held Sunday at
2pm (https://music.berkeley.edu/carillon). The view from the pinnacle, on
clear days, stretches all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, lined up per-
fectly in the distance past the city skyline.
Also worth exploring is the clumsily named
University of California,
Berkeley
,
Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
(2626 Bancroft Way;
%
510/642-0808; www.bampfa.berkeley.edu; $9.50 ages 18-64; $6.50
seniors 65 and over, students, and kids 18 and under),
where an exhaus-
tive slate of screenings and exhibitions—often eight at a time, mostly
dealing with contemporary art and politics—are scheduled. Something
else that's cool: Visitors are allowed to audit Cal's undergraduate “Film 50”
course, which screens at the archive across the street from the museum;
book ahead online. The list of screenings is long and provocative; recent
topics included the mainstream (Orson Welles) to the prickly (the riots of
1968), but as this is a film archive, titles are rarely something you'd find
in a Netflix queue. It's free the first Thursday of each month.
It's no surprise that an institution so many mathies call home would
produce several free podcasts and cellphone tours for visitors to use: Visit
www.berkeley.edu/visitors/free_tours.html to download some of those.
As a public university, Cal has a surprising number of free sights and
events ranging from concerts to brainy social and political discussions, to
author readings—and not just any authors, but the cream of publishing;
when I was there last, Pulitzer winner Michael Chabon
(The Amazing
Adventures of Kavalier and Clay)
was booked. Pick the low-hanging fruit for
yourself by hitting the school's jam-packed website (http://events.berkeley.
edu), which also lists the various exhibitions that the school sponsors or
hosts, either on campus or around town. When school is in session, you can
also pick up a free copy of
The Daily Californian,
the student newspaper,
where you can learn about more events, particularly student-organized ones.
