Undergraduate education, always a focus of our energies on the Berkeley campus, was foregrounded in 1998-99 with the creation of a new Commission on Undergraduate Education, convened by the Executive Vice Chancellor and Co-Chaired by the Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Affairs and the Dean of Undergraduate Education. The sixteen-member Commission, composed largely of very prominent faculty members from across the campus, began its work in spring 1999. After an initial exploration of the existing programs and services available to undergraduates, the members decided to focus their attention on three areas in particular: Advising, Enrichment Opportunities, and Integrative Intellectual Experiences. The recommendations that the Commission makes in these areas will be set within a framework of what it has identified as the three major stages, or phases, of an undergraduate education: the cornerstone (or foundational) phase, the methodology phase, and the capstone phase. The Chancellor and Executive Vice Chancellor are looking forward to receiving a report from this Commission at the close of spring 2000.

The courses, programs, and initiatives described in the pages that follow are the fruits of similar discussions, by earlier committees and task forces as well as the more localized discussions that take place daily in academic departments and program offices across the campus. Berkeley’s commitment to undergraduate education takes many forms, and this report captures only the highlights for the given year. No one undergraduate will benefit from all the initiatives described here, but all of the initiatives benefit undergraduates, and each contributes to the overall climate of support and challenge that undergraduates experience at Berkeley.