![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/large-RichLyons_Chancellor_Natera_240920_07.jpg\")
UC Berkeley chancellor Rich Lyons in his office in California Hall, on Sept. 20, 2024. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside\/CatchLight Local<\/p>\nUC Berkeley chancellor Rich Lyons in his office in California Hall, on Sept. 20, 2024. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside\/CatchLight Local<\/p>\n
Rich Lyons has one of the tougher jobs in California right now. Six months after he took over as UC Berkeley\u2019s chancellor in mid-2024, Donald Trump was sworn in as president for the second time, ushering in an era of unprecedented tension between the federal government and universities.<\/p>\n
As the Trump administration has attacked higher education\u2019s independence \u2014 launching investigations into colleges\u2019 handling of antisemitism and efforts to attract a diverse faculty and student body, and demanding sweeping changes to admissions, hiring and curriculum \u2014 institutions are seeing their reputations defined by their response to the pressure.<\/p>\n
Trump officials and Congressional Republicans have initiated at least seven separate investigations into UC Berkeley since 2024, and the administration had revoked $50 million in federal research grants to the campus as of December.<\/p>\n
Lyons, the first UC Berkeley chancellor to have earned an undergraduate degree at Cal, remains ebullient regarding the university and its future. He\u2019s the university\u2019s former head of innovation and entrepreneurship, and the kind of chief executive who hosts a panel discussion titled \u201cWhy Kind Leaders Win<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, as the Trump administration began revoking research grants nationwide, some faculty publicly wondered<\/a> whether Lyons had the temperament to fiercely defend UC Berkeley from what they saw as an existential threat. He drew sharp criticism from free speech advocates when the university shared with the Trump administration unredacted files from internal antisemitism investigations that named 160 faculty and students<\/a>, and again when it suspended computer science lecturer Peyrin Kao<\/a> for comments he made in the classroom about the war in Gaza. The Berkeley Faculty Association, a progressive group representing a fifth of tenure-track faculty, said the latter decision \u201cthreatens the faculty\u2019s fundamental political freedoms as citizens<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n But Lyons\u2019 background as a prolific fundraiser and focus on generating new revenue sources for Cal feel, to admirers of his leadership, tailor-made for a moment when federal research funding is increasingly under threat. He has particularly emphasized capturing more of the profit generated from discoveries made at the university. It\u2019s an effort that he projects could bring in an additional $100 million annually within the next 10 years, and which he frames as a way to preserve scholars\u2019 ability to study what they deem important, regardless of the political winds.<\/p>\n Berkeleyside sat down with Lyons on Feb. 3 for a wide-ranging talk about academic freedom, his role in protecting the university\u2019s students and its bottom line, and the legacy he wants to leave as chancellor. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n How do you balance the need to react to changes at the federal level with the day- to-day business of running a top-notch research university?<\/p>\n The metaphor I use a lot is that it\u2019s a bifocal moment. There\u2019s stuff coming at us, very significant stuff. And then there is this idea that, look, Berkeley is one of society\u2019s most valuable assets. Paint the picture of what we most need for society 10 years from now, and let\u2019s aim at it and let\u2019s commit to it.<\/p>\n Bound up in that is the greatly diminished trust and confidence in higher education, which predated this administration. Trust and confidence has fallen in the minds of society for three main reasons: One is cost, affordability. One is careers \u2013 are we shaping people for what they think they need? And one is culture \u2013 are we ideologically tilted? We need to tell better stories across those three things.<\/p>\n The administration has changed the game in a pretty fundamental way over the last year, so there\u2019s no question about that. I need to protect our freedom to learn, to teach and discover. And I\u2019m going to protect those things.<\/p>\n What does protecting that look like?<\/p>\n If the federal government, in its decision-making capacity, says we\u2019re not going to fund this kind of research anymore, we need to come up with a different set of resources. I need a research resources flywheel. And we can\u2019t be as dependent, I think. Whatever this administration does, whatever comes next, I think there is a secular shift downwards across administrations in the research funding we will get from the federal government. And we need to respond to that and position ourselves.<\/p>\n That\u2019s been a big emphasis for you \u2013 cultivating entrepreneurship and looking at how to capture more of the revenue that\u2019s generated from the university\u2019s intellectual property. Can you speak specifically to how you\u2019ve done that so far in your tenure?<\/p>\n Our undergraduate alumni produce more venture-funded startups than any other university in the country<\/a>, and actually by quite a margin.\u00a0<\/p>\n When we license our technology to a startup now, instead of saying these are the royalties and other kinds of payments we could receive from a licensing contract, we will say, \u201cWe\u2019ll dial down the royalties a little, but we want to own 3% to 4% of your company.\u201d How many of those do we have? Well over 100. It\u2019s really a big category.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a set of external venture capital funds that are investing in Berkeley companies and part of what they\u2019ve contractually committed to us is, when that fund starts making money, the general partner gets 20% of the upside. Well, in each of those funds, the general partner has contractually committed half of that 20% back to Berkeley. So de facto we own 10% of each of those portfolios.<\/p>\n That spreadsheet is new. It wasn\u2019t even on our balance sheet, it wasn\u2019t in our economic model. And that will enable \u2013 how are we going to go after climate in a new way? How are we going to go after human health in fundamentally different ways? How are we going to go after the fracturing that\u2019s happening within and across societies? You know, these really fundamental things that people need Berkeley to go after.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the most exciting elements is that the revenue from these new streams can be used entirely at our discretion, for the benefit of the entire university including perennially underfunded areas like the humanities and social sciences. [People might say], \u2018Oh that\u2019s just all about the money.\u2019 It\u2019s like, no, it will enable all this other really important stuff.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to shift gears to academic freedom. Your staff have said you can\u2019t legally comment on individual disciplinary cases. But speaking generally, when the university chooses to discipline a faculty member or a student in a case that involves questions of political speech or academic freedom, to what degree are you personally involved in those decisions?\u00a0<\/p>\n The general answer is really not so much. When things start getting more complicated is, ok here\u2019s a second or third or fourth offense \u2013 what are we going to do now? The policy doesn\u2019t outline that. The policy also doesn\u2019t say exactly what happens when someone crosses the line. So when things get more acute like that sometimes they pop up to me and at the very least I\u2019m briefed.<\/p>\n What are the values that guide you when you\u2019re approaching a case like that?<\/p>\n A fundamental value is, to the extent we possibly can, content neutrality. If we\u2019re thinking about the activist tradition at Berkeley, which is a really important tradition, and people expressing free speech rights on the Berkeley campus, there are hundreds of ways and places to do that on the Berkeley campus. We don\u2019t just condone it, we encourage it. And: No more tents. No more blocking Sather Gate.<\/p>\n Somebody could say, \u201cWell, by not allowing tents you\u2019re not allowing free speech.\u201d I reject that argument. So part of it is the free speech tradition of Berkeley, it doesn\u2019t mean anything goes. And that\u2019s true in the classroom as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some faculty members have publicly supported the way the university has enforced policies that regulate speech on campus and in the classroom. But I also have heard widespread concern among students and faculty that those policies are being unevenly enforced, particularly around Israel\/Palestine, and that that is being done in an attempt to appease the Trump administration. How would you respond to the folks that have those concerns?<\/p>\n Part of the question is, does it become an issue on campus? If no one reports it, if nobody says that was problematic for me, I felt uncomfortable, this feels harassing or discriminatory to me\u2026 Sometimes people say, but what about X [situation]? It\u2019s sort of like, nobody reported it. Nobody expressed discomfort. We have a formal reporting process.<\/p>\n What I\u2019m hearing you say is, if nobody reports an incident or expresses concern, there\u2019s not necessarily a reason for the university to take action.<\/p>\n Well, I don\u2019t want to overstate that. If a policy\u2019s clearly been violated, I think we have to address it, we have an obligation to address it. But as a practical matter in terms of what are our procedures, if no one reports it we may never know about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Diversity, equity and inclusion has obviously been a huge topic of debate nationwide. Has the university made any changes to its Division of Equity and Inclusion<\/a> under your tenure? And if so, what have those been?<\/p>\n The university is and was dedicated to making society more inclusive, to making it more equitable and to making it more diverse. It\u2019s the Division of Equity and Inclusion;, we haven\u2019t changed it. Its basic structure looks the same. I think if anything we\u2019ve increased resources to the general area. [Editor\u2019s Note: Berkeleyside later reviewed figures provided by UC Berkeley that show the division\u2019s funding from the university rising steadily from 2020 to 2024, then remaining flat from school year 2024-25 to 2025-26. Funding from outside sources such as philanthropy and grants increased during that year, leaving the division\u2019s total budget up 8% year over year, and up by about half since 2020.]\u00a0<\/p>\n We owe it to ourselves and the society that we serve to continually think about, Could we move some resources from A to B, because A isn\u2019t actually delivering as much as we hoped it to?<\/p>\n Are there particular initiatives, then, within that broad area of diversity, equity and inclusion that the university is now either doing less of or doing more of?<\/p>\n One of the things that\u2019s so distinctive about Berkeley and the whole UC system \u2014 and this is not true of Michigan or Virginia \u2014 a third of our incoming undergraduates are transfer students, 95% from California Community Colleges. So when we think about what upward mobility looks like, and how to drive more upward mobility, we are thinking an awful lot about those questions.<\/p>\n This is a hypothetical, it\u2019s an idea, so I\u2019m not saying we\u2019re committing to it, [but] with so many of the jobs going away for new graduates\u2026what if we designed a bundle of services for career and life for first-generation, Pell-eligible, lower-income students for the five years after they graduate?<\/p>\n That\u2019s really interesting at a number of levels, because students who come into Berkeley with a lot of social capital, their family\u2019s connected, they\u2019re getting internships, they\u2019re not as reliant on a lot of those things. So as jobs dry up in the new graduate market, the people with fewer advantages are going to lose the most.<\/p>\n You could look at that and say that\u2019s just economics, [but] this is a more inclusive way to be, this is a more equitable way to be, it\u2019s a more diverse way to be.<\/p>\n The Multicultural Community Center has provided cultural programming and community with an emphasis on communities of color, and I\u2019ve heard from students and alums that it has been a strong space of support for some of those students who are first-generation, trying to navigate campus and find their support system. It\u2019s been closed since the summer. Is it going to reopen?\u00a0 And can you comment on why it closed?<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Rich-Lyons-at-Berkeley-City-Club.jpg\")
Lyons talks at the Berkeley City Club on July 2, 2025. Credit: Sara Martin\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20250923-190841.webp.jpeg\")
Researcher Roberto Livi inspects space hardware for the ESCAPADE mission in a cleanroom at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. Credit: Alan Toth<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sproul-Plaza-protest.jpg\")
Students rally March 19, 2025, on UC Berkeley\u2019s Sproul Plaza in opposition to the Trump administration\u2019s promises to slash federal research funding and to crack down on diversity initiatives. Credit: Natalya Nielsen<\/p>\n