UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks hails planned Richmond campus as global university site
By Robert Rogers rrogers@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted:   12/11/2014 03:16:47 PM PST0 Comments
Updated:   12/11/2014 04:16:27 PM PST
RICHMOND -- UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks vowed Thursday to work with the city to build a Berkeley Global Campus on the city's south shore that would draw talent from around the world to work on the scientific and health challenges of the next century.
Dirks' remarks were delivered at a luncheon at the university's Richmond Field Station -- the site of the proposed development -- that drew community, labor and business groups.
"Some of our most significant issues for the 21st century and beyond are going to be led right here," Dirks said, adding that his vision is for an "international, global branch campus at home" in the Bay Area.
The meeting was billed as an opportunity for Richmond community leaders and Dirks to discuss the university's major initiative to build a global research campus in Richmond.
The project, which does not yet have a construction date, has changed over the past two years from a proposed joint campus for Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and UC Berkeley. In 2013, the lab lost expected U.S. Department of Energy funding in the wake of federal budget sequestration, leaving development plans for the Richmond Field Station in limbo and the city and the university to go it alone and hunt for private capital.
The updated vision calls for a major expansion of UC Berkeley on land it has long owned in Richmond, with U.S. and international students joining scholars and scientists advancing knowledge in fields such as bioscience, health, energy development and data studies, Dirks said. The chancellor was adamant that funding challenges and modifications did not imperil the long-term prospects of the project, which could represent hundreds of millions of dollars in investment into the site.
"We don't fully know what is going to develop, but we know it's going to be here," Dirks said.
Along with its research mission, the campus will have a strong educational component, with both undergraduate and graduate-level academic programs for U.S. and international students, Dirks said, and have "robust" partnerships with local public schools.
City Manager Bill Lindsay, who shared some opening remarks, called the project the "keystone for development of the southern shoreline" and compared it to World War II-scale projects that turned the city from a sleepy fishing village to a diverse urban city. Lindsay said the campus and surrounding development would encompass 220 acres.
"This is the biggest economic development event since the (World War II) shipyards in Richmond," Lindsay said.
City documents dispersed during the meeting forecast a final environmental impact report and specific plan coming before the City Council in October 2015. Among the broad objectives the city wants in the project are street improvements, open space at the shore and transit-friendly development of surrounding commercial and residential buildings.
Community leaders said they hoped to see local hiring and procurement agreements, along with workforce development and training, as part of the project. Those details still must be ironed out.
"I don't want to say anything I can't deliver on," Dirks said. "But I'm committed to figuring this out together."
Dirks focused much of his remarks on putting the Bay Area at the forefront of a shrinking world's scientific and educational leadership and highlighting the assets in Berkeley and Richmond. He noted Richmond's ferry dock, which he said would help link the new campus with universities and talent in San Francisco.
Lindsay also highlighted the area's transportation infrastructure as well suited to helping integrate the Bay Area's financial and scientific resources.
Dirks, formerly of Columbia University in New York, paired New York City and Northern California as "places that are important to the world," and said the new campus in Richmond would be a magnet for talent from around the globe, particularly from China.
Dirks mentioned the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as an example of the types of challenges that could be overcome by research and applied sciences fostered at the Richmond campus.
"We will have some of the greatest young minds in the world" in Berkeley and Richmond, Dirks said. "And this will be a laboratory for global challenges."
Contact Robert Rogers at 510-262-2726. Follow him at Twitter.com/sfbaynewsrogers.
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