Although the WarnMe alert system drew some criticism in 2011 after many did not receive notification about a shooting at Haas School of Business, the campus’s multiple warning systems appear to have been utilized effectively during Monday’s power outage and explosion, campus officials said.

Campus police and officials used nearly all emergency systems in place to respond to the events — including WarnMe, the campus siren-and-PA system and the emergency phone line, which played a looped message with updates on the situation. Messages were also posted on the campus public affairs website, Facebook and Twitter pages, according to campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore.

UCPD sent four messages via WarnMe, said UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada.

After the explosion near California Hall about 6:40 p.m., a message went out at 6:50 p.m. telling recipients to evacuate campus immediately due to an emergency.

“We know that there will be situations where individuals maybe might get (WarnMe messages) late or not receive them,” Gilmore said. “We will be taking a close look at what worked and what needs to be improved.”

Gilmore encouraged students who did not receive text message alerts to update their information through the BearFacts website and choose text messaging as the preferred option for receiving emergency communication.

Senior Christophe Hansen-Estruch was studying at C.V. Starr East Asian Library when the campus initially lost power.

“There was this noise like a ‘bmf,’ and then all the lights went off,” he said.

After a few minutes of confusion, a library staff member went up each floor to inform students that there had been a power outage and that there was no immediate emergency, he said.

Hansen-Estruch also said he received an email from WarnMe, but because he did not sign up for text alerts, he received the warning much later.

UCPD used the campus PA system to send broadcasts instructing individuals to leave campus after the explosion occurred. Throughout the evening, police officers entered and checked campus buildings to ensure all individuals had been evacuated, Gilmore said.

The campus’s emergency systems effectively served their purpose, said UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode.

Although the residence halls did not need to be evacuated Monday night, the campus will work with city officials to find suitable areas for relocation in case the need arises in the future, said Amina Assefa, manager at the campus’s Office of Emergency Management.

“We would start looking for open spaces in the city of Berkeley and start directing people,” she said. “We would also use campus transportation services if we have to move people further away.”

Contact Jessie Lau at jlau@dailycal.org.

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Attorneys for the administrators — who include former UC Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer — motioned to remove their clients as defendants in the lawsuit, which alleges UC Berkeley administrators hold partial responsibility for police brutality against protesters on Nov. 9, 2011.

BAMN, an organization that supports students’ rights and affirmative action, filed the $15 million federal civil rights lawsuit in 2011 against police who raided and dismantled a large Occupy Cal protest taking place on campus and the administrators BAMN claims approved those actions. Video footage of police officers beating students with batons received mass media coverage in the weeks after the event.

The lawsuit states the police officers used unwarranted violence in their response and violated protesters’ constitutional rights.

UC Berkeley administrators have acknowledged that violence took place but claim they did not break the law in any way.

“While everyone wishes that the events of that day ended differently, from a legal standpoint, the actions were legally justified,” said UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore in a statement emailed to The Daily Californian on Tuesday.

George Washington, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the police response to Occupy Cal was extreme because of the nature of the protesters’ demands, which included stopping tuition hikes and budget cuts.

“We think this is pure political retaliation against the protesters, and a lot of people got hurt as a result of it,” Washington said.

After public outcry stemming from the events, the UC Berkeley Police Review Board released a report concluding that the use of batons against students was disturbing. Birgeneau said he regretted the actions carried out that day in a personal statement issued in June of last year.

Gilmore reiterated that regret Tuesday.

“Clearly what happened that day (in November 2011) does not reflect our values as an institution,” she said in the email. “Since then we have established a Protest Response Team that considers numerous ways to peacefully resolve protests and demonstrations.”

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will make a decision in response to the motion to remove administrators from the lawsuit within the next several weeks.

Regardless of the judge’s decision on the motion, the lawsuit will continue until an ultimate resolution is reached, according to Yvette Felarca, a plaintiff in the suit and a BAMN organizer.

“We’re confident that the university is and will be held accountable one way or another throughout this lawsuit,” she said. “Our goal is to make sure that the university never does this again to any future demonstrators on the campus.”

Claire Chiara covers research and ideas. Contact her at cchiara@dailycal.org.

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Libby Rainey/Staff

SACRAMENTO — State officials will soon begin evaluating UC Berkeley’s policies regarding sexual assault, following complaints that the campus’s response to cases of sexual violence is inadequate.

In a nod to growing concern from the public, a committee of the California State Legislature approved plans on Wednesday to audit the university’s compliance with Title IX — a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs that receive federal funding. The review follows allegations by nine UC Berkeley students that the university mishandled sexual assault cases in a federal complaint filed in May. The students claimed that campus administrators discouraged them from reporting the incidents to authorities and underreported incidents of sexual violence on campus.

The Joint Committee on Legislative Audit authorized the evaluation in a unanimous vote. Assemblymember Anthony Rendon, D-Long Beach, requested the move, which will evaluate two CSU campuses and one additional UC campus, along with UC Berkeley.

“Over the past year, I have talked to survivors from all over campus who all recite to me tired familiar lines they heard from university personnel they had entrusted to help them,” said Aryle Butler, a UC Berkeley student and sexual assault survivor, at the meeting. “We gathered together and filed a federal complaint to send a message to our university, to the government and to all of the silent survivors who aren’t able to speak out, that sexual violence will not go unnoticed.”

Butler said she was first disheartened and angered with the campus when she approached a campus official with her case in the fall of 2012. A rising junior who says she was assaulted by the same perpetrator twice, Butler said she was told there was nothing that could be done about her assault. She said that her assailant was never punished, as far as she knows.

UC Berkeley student Sofie Karasek also spoke at the meeting. She said she was assaulted in the spring of 2012 by a student leader who also assaulted three of her peers. She said the campus only alerted her about an investigation seven months after she reported the incident.

Rendon, who requested the audit, called “rape culture” on college campuses “staggering.”

“Sexual violence is the elephant in the room that we simply are not acknowledging,” he said. “As a state we cannot stand for this sort of negligence. We should all be concerned with the reports of the women at UC Berkeley.”

According to the 2012-13 UC Berkeley Campus Annual Security Report, a total of 21 forcible sexual assault incidents were reported in 2011. Four were reported in 2010.

The ASUC passed a vote of no confidence in the campus’s handling of sexual assault last April. Anais LaVoie, a UC Berkeley graduate who helped author the bill, said that she has seen no significant change in the administration’s handling of assault cases since the ASUC’s vote.

“There have been a number of meetings with administrators, but they haven’t gone anywhere,” LaVoie said. “They are meetings to save face.”

UC Berkeley spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said that the school is dedicated to addressing student concerns regarding sexual assault.

“We are committed to taking a close look at what we can do to better serve students and incorporate their feedback and concerns as we seek to address their concerns,” Gilmore said in an email.

State Auditor Elaine Howle said the audit will start in November at the latest and will take up to seven months to complete.

Many state legislators expressed outrage at student testimonies.

“I’m furious,” said California state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, at the meeting. “These are the same examples that we were hearing 30 years ago. Universities go through the motions, they give it lip service, and nothing changes. If it’s the same story 30 years later, we are not doing this right.”

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The complaint, filed Wednesday, alleges that the university discouraged sexual assault survivors from reporting incidents to local authorities, failing to notify the campus community of immediate threats to their health and safety and persistently underreporting sexual battery, sexual assault and rape.  If found to be in violation of the allegations, the campus could be fined $35,000 for every offense.

UC Berkeley students filed complaints under the Clery Act in coordination with students from Swarthmore College, Dartmouth College and the University of Southern California at a press conference with women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing students at USC and Occidental College.

UC Berkeley students Sofie Karasek and Anais LaVoie, among the students filing the charges, have agreed to speak on behalf of their fellow complainants.

“For over a year, we have asked campus staff and administrators to take our bodies, our voices and our rights seriously,” LaVoie said in a press release. “We can no longer wait for action, because we’ve learned throughout this process that it isn’t coming.”

Campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore said the campus has not yet reviewed the complaint and, as a result, is unable to comment directly on the issue.

“UC Berkeley takes sexual assault very seriously, and we are constantly working to strengthen our efforts to prevent such acts from occurring and to thoroughly report and investigate such matters when they arise,” Gilmore said. “We also seek to ensure that students receive the counseling and the support services they need when coping with such a difficult ordeal.”

According to the 2012-13 UC Berkeley Campus Annual Security Report, a total of 21 forcible sexual assault incidents as defined by the Clery Act were reported in 2011 — compared to only 4 in 2010. However, Timofey Semenov, student advocate-elect, says that this rate may be inaccurate because reported incidents may have happened in earlier years.

Enacted in 1990, the Clery Act requires colleges and universities participating in federal financial aid programs to disclose information about crimes that happen on or near campuses.

Once complaints are filed, the U.S. Department of Education assigns an investigation team to the campus in question to examine and review the school’s programs. According to Alison Kiss, executive director of the Clery Center for Security on Campus, these investigations can take years to be completed.

In April, Yale University was fined $165,000 by the Department of Education for violations of the Clery Act after a seven-year investigation.

Karasek hopes that filing the charges will encourage the campus to reform many of its policies, including ones spelled out in the ASUC bill SB 130, which was passed in April and expresses no confidence in UC Berkeley sexual assault policies.

Karasek says she was sexually assaulted her freshman year by a student leader who also assaulted four of her peers. After reporting the incident to the campus, she was not notified until seven months later that there had even been an investigation.

According to Karasek, she received two three-line emails from the administration regarding the incident — one explaining that the case had been solved through the “early resolution” process and the second saying that her assailant had been found to be in violation of the code of conduct without specifying whether disciplinary action had been taken.

Her assailant graduated from the university two weeks later, making him exempt from any further disciplinary action.

“Contrary to its amazing reputation for social justice, Berkeley has a history of silencing survivors,” Karasek said. “This is unacceptable, and the time for change is now.”

Andrea Guzman is a news editor. Contact her at aguzman@dailycal.org and on Twitter @guzmanandrea5.

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Mary Zheng/File

Increasing undergraduate nonresident enrollment at UC Berkeley may decrease campus racial and socioeconomic diversity, according to research released this month.

In a study analyzing public universities’ enrollment data, professors Bradley Curs and Ozan Jaquette found that as nonresident student enrollment increased, the number of Pell Grant recipients and underrepresented minority students decreased, particularly at research universities such as UC Berkeley.

“Flagship public universities have been a source of social mobility for low-income and underrepresented minority students who cannot afford out-of-state and private tuition,” the paper reads. “Non-resident enrollment growth — chiefly motivated by revenue concerns — may have the unintended consequence of diminish(ing) socioeconomic and racial diversity.”

The research follows years of debate on the role of nonresident students in the UC system. Nonresident tuition has been increasingly looked to as an alternative source of revenue for the university in light of declining state support. Seeking increased revenue due to budget constraints, UC Berkeley set a goal of increasing nonresident enrollment to 20 percent, which the campus expects to reach next school year.

Nonresident enrollment at UC Berkeley has risen 10 percent since the 2007-08 school year, from 8 percent to 18 percent. UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore said that despite this, the campus has maintained diversity.

“Our data clearly shows that our Pell Grant numbers have remained steady, that our underrepresented minority numbers have been steady and actually increasing,” Gilmore said. “There has always been a commitment to making sure that we were increasing diversity.”

According to the UC Berkeley Office of Planning and Analysis, Berkeley’s African American population increased from 148 in the 2009-10 school year to 165 this year. The Chicano/Latino population increased from 589 to 612 in the same period.

Currently, out-of-state students in the UC system pay around $23,000 more in tuition fees than in-state students. Curs and Jaquette’s research identified high nonresident fees as a filter that discourages many low-income nonresident students from attending out-of-state schools.

“(Nonresident enrollment) crowds out low-income people more than racial minorities,” Jaquette said. “People are very aware of racial diversity, but class diversity often doesn’t get highlighted as much.”

Still, some students have raised concerns about the relatively static underrepresented minority numbers on the UC Berkeley campus. Kirk Coleman, executive director of the UC Berkeley bridges Multicultural Resource Center and a campus senior, said increased nonresident enrollment would inevitably exclude underrepresented minority students.

“It’s problematic that (the campus) thinks where the numbers are now are OK,” Coleman said. “If you look at (underrepresented minority) populations based on state demographics, they are significantly higher than how they are represented on campus. I think that shows where the university is going — not towards more diversity but towards making more money.”

Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Gibor Basri said the campus considered a potential decrease in diversity when it established the 20 percent nonresident enrollment goal but that diversity has remained steady despite substantial growth in nonresident enrollment.

“The socioeconomic piece is pretty obvious because it’s a lot more expensive to come as an out-of-state student, and the financial aid is much lower,” Basri said. “It hasn’t really had an impact on diversity so far. I’m a little surprised by that, but since people were aware of that issue, there was an extra effort made (to improve diversity).”

UC Student Regent Jonathan Stein has spoken out against increasing nonresident enrollment in the past, pointing to the possibility of nonresident “clustering,” a phenomenon in which out-of-state students flock to top-ranking schools such as UCLA and UC Berkeley more than to other UC campuses. Student Regent-designate Cinthia Flores echoed this sentiment, pointing to the university’s public mission of access and inclusion.

“The primary purpose of the UC is it is supposed to be a system that provides Californians with an affordable education, and a big part of owning up to that commitment is making sure the diversity of California is shown in the UC system,” Flores said. “When you have such an out-of-state-student-focus strategy, the demand for out-of-state students does not translate throughout the system … Then that creates a shortage in the system.”

Libby Rainey covers higher education. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

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Michael Drummond/File

Students will have a chance to meet and interview two finalists contending for the role of UCPD chief of police during a special forum Thursday after a similar meeting took place Wednesday for two of the other candidates.

The meetings, which will be held at the Haas Pavilion Club Room from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., will act as a way for students to speak with candidates for police chief, according to ASUC President Connor Landgraf. The candidates include interim UCPD Chief Margo Bennett as well as Rhonda Harris, Eric Heath and Nate Johnson, who all hail from police leadership backgrounds at other universities.

“It’s a really important time for students to come out and make their voices and opinion heard about this search so they can have the best police chief possible,” Landgraf said.

The campus has embarked on a nationwide search for former UCPD chief Mitch Celaya’s replacement and received 71 applications for the position, according to campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore. Celaya’s tenure as police chief was marked with noted controversy for the department’s handling of the fall 2011 Occupy protests.

For students like UC Berkeley junior James Chang, who was involved in Occupy Cal and is currently running for ASUC Senate, UCPD’s role in the November protests still remains a pivotal issue, and he hopes that the new chief will strive to prevent similar incidents.

“I would like to see this new chief of the UCPD pledge to make sure that the violence we saw from police officers in November 2011 does not occur again,” Chang said.

Landgraf said he believes that the new chief should work on improving student safety on campus as well as have an understanding of the relationships between the city and university.

All of the candidates have police backgrounds in university settings. Harris is chief of police at Old Dominion University, Heath is deputy chief of police at the University of Chicago and Johnson is chief law enforcement officer for the California State University system.

“(The police chief position) requires somebody who is willing to be a kind of community leader — a person who is willing to meet with student groups, faculty and staff,” Heath said.

The candidates also cite UC Berkeley’s reputation as a highly regarded university as one of the reasons they applied for the job.

“It only stands to reason that the University of California is one of the finest academic institutions in the world, and it truly deserves to have one of the finest police departments in the world,” Bennett said.

Gilmore added that the search will be an exhaustive process involving consultations with all segments of the Berkeley community.

“The criteria that (the search committee) were looking for included expertise in university policing, community policing, law enforcement leadership, relationship building and training and development,” Gilmore said. “They will meet with a broad group of folks including students, senior campus administrators, faculty leaders, community leaders, members of the UCPD and representatives from the BPD.”

The search committee will name its two final candidates toward the end of March, and these candidates will be interviewed by top UCPD leaders as well as Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and Ron Coley, associate vice chancellor of business and administrative services.

Andy Nguyen is the lead crime reporter. Contact him at anguyen@dailycal.org
and follow him on Twitter @Andy_Truc.

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Tony Zhou/File

UC Berkeley is one of the five most reputable universities in the world according to a recent rankings report published by Times Higher Education Monday.

UC Berkeley placed fifth among 100 universities in a worldwide ranking based on reputation. While Berkeley moved down from number four in 2011, it retained its spot among the top five universities that include Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford.

“UC Berkeley has been consistently ranked among the top tier universities nationwide and worldwide and we are proud of that accomplishment,” said campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore in an email. “At a time when funding to public higher education has slipped, it’s an important reminder that the quality of the research conducted here and the education that students gain here remains among the very best in the world.”

According to a Times Higher Education report, the rankings were based on the nominations of around 16,000 peer-reviewed academics around the world who each selected the 15 best institutions in their field of expertise.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said in an analysis of Times Higher Education’s ranking that the campus’s reputation is strengthened by the close relationship between its administration and faculty members.

“There is a strong partnership between the senior administration and the faculty leadership, with outstanding researchers and teachers involving themselves in the governance of the university,” Birgeneau said in an article published along with the rankings. “The academic administrators, from the deans to the provost and chancellor, are all themselves highly accomplished scholars and teachers.”

UC Berkeley also beat Bay Area rival Stanford University, which placed sixth in this year’s rankings.

“We are glad we have had a relationship of friendly competition throughout the years, and I don’t see that changing in the near future,” said Senator Viraj Bindra of the Associated Students of Stanford University.

UC Berkeley has continued to rank high in recent years, consistently maintaining a position in the top five since 2011 despite experiencing state budget cuts and tuition hikes.

“Given what’s happened to tuition and our budget, I think (the ranking) speaks volumes about the leadership (at Berkeley) and how people are able to get through difficult times,” said ASUC External Affairs Vice President Shahryar Abbasi. “It shows how Berkeley can stay strong.”

Contact Tara Hurley at thurley@dailycal.org.

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Trevor Mcgoldrick/Courtesy

While UC Berkeley stands to lose millions of dollars in funding due to the federal sequester, the campus has yet to develop a plan to mitigate these effects.

Following Congress’ failure to reach an agreement on a budget deal by March 1, the federal government will face $85 billion in automatic spending reductions. Those spending cuts are expected to continue over the next 10 years, totaling approximately $1.2 trillion in cuts in federal spending.

Among numerous cuts, UC Berkeley will see a reduction in federal support for research grants, financial aid and work-study programs.
Still, the campus remains uncertain about how it will cope with the cuts in funding.

“We need information from federal authorities regarding what to expect on the research side and on the financial aid side,” said UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore.

Across California, 9,600 fewer students will receive financial aid this year, according to a statement from the White House.

While the federal Pell Grant program will not be subjected to immediate reductions in funding, it could face deep cuts beginning in the 2014 fiscal year, according to Gilmore. Thirty-five percent of UC Berkeley undergraduates received Pell Grants during the 2011-12 academic year.

Students employed in work-study positions will also bear some of the brunt of the sequester. In California, 3,690 fewer students will receive work-study jobs, according to a statement from the White House.

“I couldn’t imagine putting the entire burden of my loans and room and board on my parents,” said Haley Tessaro, who is employed as a secretary at the Haas School of Business under UC Berkeley’s work-study program.

Additionally, there will be an $86 million reduction in Federal Work-Study and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants across the nation, according to a statement from Information for Financial Aid Professionals.

“Cal is a great institution, but with lower financial help for students in need, just being a great institution isn’t enough,” Tessaro said.

In the next fiscal year, UC Berkeley’s research programs, 63 percent of which are financed by federal funds, are expected to face $49 million in cuts.

The programs have already incurred $49 million in cuts this past fiscal year, as federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health have been implementing cuts in research grants since October in anticipation of the sequester.

Federal contracts and grants constitute about 18 percent of campus revenue.

Recognizing that 85 percent of NIH’s funds are allocated to universities across the nation, including UC Berkeley, NIH director Francis Collins said the “impact will be felt across all 50 states.”

Collins said the agency will be penny-pinching, looking for anything that could possibly be delayed as well as cutting travel and conference spending.

“There definitely is a high level of concern, particularly knowing that we have already seen an impact on the research side,” Gilmore said. “We need answers in order to understand what to expect and what students’ financial future looks like.”

Alex Berryhill covers higher education. Contact her at aberryhill@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @berryhill93.

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Michael Drummond/Staff

More than 50 protesters gathered at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue Wednesday afternoon before marching to the Tang Center to protest changes to UC Student Health Insurance Plan coverage.

The protesters requested that UC administrators meet numerous conditions, including no increases in SHIP fees, lifting coverage and prescription drug caps on SHIP plans, improvements in dependent care and a new contract that prevents layoffs for health care workers.

“We’re protesting the fact that UC SHIP is exploiting a loophole in Obamacare that makes it so we still have caps on our services,” said Austin Pritzkat, a UC Berkeley sophomore and organizer for CalSERVE.

The protesters came from a variety of student groups and unions, including CalSERVE; UAW Local 2865, which represents student-workers; and AFSCME 3299, which represents health care and service workers.

In response to their efforts, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau agreed to meet with a group of students sometime during the next two weeks to discuss the conditions involved in the protest, said campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore in an email.

After protesting at Bancroft and Telegraph for about half an hour, the protesters marched down Bancroft, blocking traffic while holding signs and chanting, “Health care should be free, no caps, no fees.”

The protest comes less than three weeks after it was revealed that UC SHIP is projected to have a systemwide $57 million deficit and that administrators have recommended increasing premiums by an average of 25 percent systemwide, including a 19.8 percent increase for UC Berkeley students.

“We are protesting to demand that the university not increase our health care costs,” said graduate student Munira Lokhandwala. “We think they’re already too high. We don’t want to pay for the mismanagement of funds.”

Following their march down Bancroft, the protesters reached the Tang Center, where eight went inside for a sit-in in the lobby while about 50 others continued their protest in the courtyard.

“It’s a backdoor fee hike, but it’s still a fee hike,” said UC Berkeley graduate student Rachel Lesser to the crowd gathered outside. “We say no to fee hikes.”

The sit-in at the Tang Center continued for more than two hours as the protesters spoke with Ron Coley, associate vice chancellor of business and administrative services, and Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard. The students left the Tang Center after the chancellor agreed to meet with them.

“They were very open to working with us, and they were very clear that their interests are very well-aligned with ours,” said UC Berkeley student Maggie Hardy.

Gilmore said the Tang Center was able to remain open to patients throughout the day.

“We are sympathetic to the students’ position and understand that they were seeking to bring attention to their cause,” Gilmore said in an email.

.

Mitchell Handler covers academics and administration. Contact him at mhandler@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @mitchellhandler.

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Marcus Gedai/File

With high graduation rates and relatively few instances of student default, UC Berkeley is the exception to alarming national averages found in a recently published report.

According to the American Dreams 2.0 report published Jan. 24, 46 percent of students who enroll in an institution of higher education in the United States drop out before completing their degree in six years. The report blamed rising student debt, the complexity of financial aid programs and growing tuition, among other factors.

At UC Berkeley however, the six-year college completion rate is higher than the national average of 54 percent cited in the report. The latest data available — from the freshman class of 2005-06 — put the graduation rate at 90 percent.

“UC Berkeley’s six year graduation rates for fall-entrant freshmen (the federal reporting standard) have in recent years been very high, exceeded only by the University of Virginia,” said campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore in an email.

The different attendance patterns at UC Berkeley could be responsible for such a high graduation rate, according to Terrell Halaska, a partner at HCM Strategists — the public policy advocacy group that published the report.

“Students who attend research institutions like Berkeley live on campus and attend full time,” Halaska said. “Community college students are usually (long) out of high school, they’re adults and sometimes have children to support.”

The report identified high debt and a dysfunctional financial aid system as some of the most widespread problems affecting graduation rates. Students with high debt and who default on student loans are more likely to leave postsecondary education without a degree, the report said.

According to Gilmore, the campus’s three-year default rate is 2.6 percent — low when compared to the national average of 13.4 percent. UC Berkeley students also have the lowest overall debt at graduation of any of the member schools in the Association of American Universities, with only 40 percent borrowing an average of $17,116.

The report recommended simplifying the financial aid process to allow students to better understand and take advantage of all available aid. It also proposed associating incentives with financial aid to encourage students and schools to make the best use of the aid they receive.

The report was published by HCM Strategists in collaboration with education policy experts from across the country, including Christopher Edley, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. The report aims to spark dialogue on growing dropout and default rates — a phenomenon the report called a national crisis.

“It’s time to start a national conversation about the fact that only about 50 percent of students who start college actually graduate,” Halaska said. “What are the right policy levers we can use to help students successfully complete a college degree?”

Jacob Brown is the lead higher education reporter. Contact him at jbrown@dailycal.org.

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