<p>[UC</a> Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to retire at end of 2012 - latimes.com](<a href=“Archive blogs”>Archive blogs)</p>
<p>I hope his replacement is a Cal insider.</p>
<p>To be honest, I hope his replacement would be someone who has observed that Berkeley is already too cramped, and that s/he intends to cut the UNDERGRAD student population by half, at least.</p>
<p>I hope that his replacement looks at the UC System’s Mission Statement before deciding to increase non-resident enrollment… again.</p>
<p>To be clear, the UC Mission statement (the Master Plan) is regarding enrollment of state residents across the entire UC system, not at Berkeley specifically. There is no stipulation within the Master Plan that Berkeley must always enroll a specific percentage of state residents.</p>
<p>I’ll admit I was never a fan of Birgenau, but he was in a tough position. He had to play political ball with the Legislature and Regents, and their focus was on everything but Cal.</p>
<p>wrt: OOS’ers…Cal (and UCLA) are the cash cows. No one in their right mind would pay OOS rates for Merced.</p>
<p>wrt: “cramped” campus…‘access’ is the number one priority of the Legislature and thus the Regents. Reducing the number of undergrads ain’t happening.</p>