The Grateful Dead nailed it with the album title, What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been — and by it, we mean the year 2020. The past 343 days have been bizarre, rough, inspiring, bittersweet and, perhaps more than anything, worth reflecting on. To help you ponder, here are 20 photos to illustrate the year and encapsulate Berkeley, the town and gown, in all of its 2020 glory and everything else in between.

Addison Briggs/Staff

Josh Kahen/File
Feb. 24
A little more than a month into the spring semester, students make their way around campus and settle into college life.

Ireland Wagner/File

Ireland Wagner/File
March 5
Swaths of students flood the steps of Doe Memorial Library and other parts of campus, showing out for the UC systemwide cry for a cost-of-living adjustment for UC graduate students.

Lisi Ludwig/Senior Staff

Sakura Cannestra/File
March 13 and May 21
With a campuswide email from Chancellor Carol Christ, March 9 marked the suspension of most in-person classes and, later, the larger question of when campus would welcome back students again. In the months after, many students left Berkeley, leaving campus with an unfamiliar emptiness.

Sunny Shen/File

David McAllister/Staff
June 6
Twelve days after the death of George Floyd on May 25, Berkeley residents stand in front of Berkeley City Hall protesting in support of the national Black Lives Matter movement. The Berkeley community joined thousands of others within the state in active demonstrations calling for systemic change.

David McAllister/Staff
July 30
Hikers return from an adventure at Mount Tamalpais in Mill Valley. Like the rest of the country, students took to the outdoors in light of quarantine.

Sunny Shen/File
Aug. 20
On Aug. 26, UC Berkeley launched its “semester in the cloud,” a semester initially hoped to be hybrid that later became entirely remote by the end of the summer.

Josh Kahen/File
Sept. 9
A product of the 600 fires that ravaged California this fall fire season, the sky’s apocalyptic orange tint greeted Berkeley residents the morning of Sept. 9. Continued weeks of poor air quality only intensified the reality of climate change for Californians.

Gisselle Reyes/File
Oct. 14
Almost unrecognizable, the Recreational Sports Facility transformed into one of two campus surveillance testing centers. Throughout the fall, COVID-19 testing has been offered free of cost to students, staff and faculty.

Katie Lee/Staff
Oct. 17
While some students returned to campus for the fall, the dual punch of a lack of student customers and the pandemic has left Telegraph Avenue and the rest of Berkeley looking and feeling a little lonely without its usual bustle. Fan favorites, such as Daiso and Au Coquelet, were unfortunately among the shops that closed their doors this summer and fall.

Josh Kahen/File

Lisi Ludwig/Senior Staff
Nov. 3 and 7
Ears before eyes: A chorus of pots and pans traded off among Berkeley residents Nov. 7, celebrating the long-drawn-out news declaring Joe Biden the next president of the United States. Four days earlier, Californians took to the polls to determine Donald Trump’s stay in office as well as the fate of many hot-button state propositions and local measures.

Gisselle Reyes/Staff

Maddie Fruman/Staff
Halloween and Thanksgiving
November marked the ninth month since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. From Zoom to the dinner table, holidays pressed on but in a variety of fashions and reimaginations of seasonal traditions.

Celine Bellegarda/File

Josh Kahen/File
Dec. 3 and 5
By early December, UC Berkeley’s basketball and football teams had made a comeback. Without fans or crowds, Memorial Stadium has seen the Golden Bears twice in a season which, more than anything, has been steered by the pandemic. A reflection of the time and tradition, the women’s basketball game against Washington State was canceled due to the lack of eligible (coronavirus-free) players on Washington’s end while the football team miraculously pulled out an upset victory against powerhouse Oregon.

Celine Bellegarda/Senior Staff
Dec. 5
The Campanile, stands under a pastel sky, waiting to ring in a new year.