As it bids its UC Berkeley years farewell, the class of 2026 will see a familiar face at Memorial Stadium \u2014 public policy professor emeritus Robert Reich was announced as this year\u2019s undergraduate campuswide commencement speaker Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Reich, who has served in three national administrations and has stayed involved in politics ever since, captured the hearts of undergraduates on campus until his last lecture in the spring of 2023.<\/p>\n
Reich said, although he doesn\u2019t often accept invitations to speak, he couldn\u2019t turn down the opportunity to do so at commencement, calling it \u201ca wonderful honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t say it more simply than that I love Berkeley,\u201d Reich said. \u201cI think it\u2019s \u2026 the best university, period. The students are extraordinary. The faculty is wonderfully thoughtful and productive, with great teachers. And I think it\u2019s the most powerful engine of upward mobility in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reich has a storied past at UC Berkeley, beginning long before his first lecture: In the 1960s, he served his first stint on campus as a research assistant to Sim Van der Ryn, professor emeritus of architecture.<\/p>\n
Still, Reich said, he had limited experience with UC Berkeley before beginning as a visiting professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy in 2004, a position that became permanent only one year later. His time on campus taught him a number of lessons: namely, the merits of public universities and the fact that teaching large classes can, in fact, be fun.<\/p>\n
However, Reich was nervous when he first came to campus and was presented with the task of teaching a large class. He worried that his teaching philosophy \u2014 characterized by curiosity, engagement and problem-solving \u2014 would be incompatible with a massive lecture hall.<\/p>\n
As he developed techniques to avoid simply lecturing, Reich grew to love teaching large classes, which became \u201cprobably the most fun (he\u2019s) ever had.\u201d He added that although he had taught graduate students at Harvard and Brandeis universities in the past, UC Berkeley gave him a particular affinity for undergraduate students.<\/p>\n
\u201cUndergraduates are so open and appreciative,\u201d he said. \u201cI loved the fact that many of the undergraduates \u2014 if not most of the undergraduates \u2014 I taught really didn\u2019t know quite what they were going to do with their lives. I mean, how wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reich acknowledged that graduating from college and entering the workforce, especially now, is a particularly daunting task. He said that in the face of a \u201cterrible\u201d economy with little job growth, climate change, widening income inequality and racial inequity, he empathizes with those scared about their futures.<\/p>\n
Reich noted that it can be difficult to know what to say to young people. Despite his years of experience in public service and education, Reich said generational differences can mean two groups of people might speak different languages, even when they use the same words.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve given myself the assignment of trying to think hard about what I can say that\u2019s most helpful,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure it\u2019s going to come out in time for my address, but maybe it will. Maybe that\u2019s what my address will be about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As it bids its UC Berkeley years farewell, the class of 2026 will see a familiar face at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103273,103272,29221,761,143,145,144,3381,103271],"class_list":["post-226896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-brandeis","tag-goldman-school","tag-harvard","tag-memorial-stadium","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-robert-reich","tag-sim-van-der-ryn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}