Berkeley: Student Services

Financial Aids, Scholarships, Loans
Whether students were "needy and deserving" in the 1897 phrase, were "gifted" or combined "scholarship, financial need, character and promise" in 1965 terms, they could be eligible for financial aids available through the University. Some of the scholarships, prizes, and loans were available to undergraduate students, some to graduates, and some to both. Various committees determined eligibility and made awards. Award conditions were specified by the donors, who included alumni and friends of the University, the state of California, the Regents, and the federal government. An overall grade average of B or 3.0 was the minimum required for consideration for University-administered awards; a semester's minimum of 12 units had to be carried by holders of undergraduate scholarships.

Entering students accounted for approximately 400 of the more than 900 undergraduate scholarships annually awarded at the Berkeley campus. They ranged in value from $200 to $600. The California Alumni Scholarships, begun in 1934, aided about 200 entrants annually by the mid-1960s. Provided by the California Alumni Foundation in conjunction with the University, they were awarded to entering freshmen and students entering with advanced standing. Awards covered about one-third of a student's annual expenses. Recipients could apply for continuation of the scholarship.

In a different category of undergraduate scholarships were the California State Scholarships administered after 1956 by the State Scholarship Commission in amounts to cover compulsory fees for a maximum of four years. The program evolved from one that began in 1897. Candidates applied from the seven congressional districts of the state, and qualified through scores achieved on the scholastic aptitude tests, proof of need and the evidence of academic transcripts. Recipients could select one of 60 California institutions participating in the program and could qualify for scholarship renewal by proving continued financial need and the maintenance of a C average.

Regents Scholarships, established in 1962, were designed for a limited number of entering freshmen and entering and continuing junior students in recognition of outstanding achievement and promise. Appointments were for four and two years respectively, carried an award of $100 regardless of need, and a stipend to cover the difference between a scholar's resources and the cost of an education at Berkeley. Appointments were subject to annual review, but were renewed automatically without reapplication if performance was satisfactory. Stipends could be adjusted if circumstances changed. Regents Scholars enjoyed a variety of prerogatives including priority in University housing and library stack permits. In addition, the Committee on Undergraduate Scholarships and Honors administered a variety of specially endowed scholarship programs.

Loans available to both graduate and undergraduate students were administered by the Office of the Dean of Students. Loans were generally intended to supplement a student's funds, not to cover the full cost of a semester's attendance. Residency, a satisfactory scholastic record, and repayment plan were usually necessary, although certain categories of students could make temporary loans even in their first semester of residency. Loans in the general category of University Loans (supported by about 175 different loan funds) averaged around $350 and were payable before the beginning of the next academic year. True Emergency Loans in amounts ranging from $1 to $50 were usually repaid within two weeks. Both loan funds at Berkeley were based on endowments, most of them established as a memorial to an individual.

Regents Loans, established in 1963, formed a revolving fund designed to supplement funds of scholarship holders. National Defense Education Act Loans, established by the federal government in 1958, required that one-ninth of the grant be matched by the Regents. Those eligible included regularly enrolled graduate or undergraduate students or applicants for admission who were citizens or permanent residents of the United States pursuing a full program of academic work and able to establish basic financial need. The director of special services in the Office of the Dean of Students also administered Health Profession Student Loans, as well as those listed above.

The Graduate Division's Committee on Fellowships and Graduate Scholarships administered over 300 fellowships and graduate scholarships, whose awards ranged from about $300 to $3,600 for an academic year. Awards were based on distinguished scholarship and academic and professional promise and were usually limited to those 32 years of age or younger to encourage graduate studies by young scholars. Through the regular University fellowship competition, based on a single application, graduates applied for general or restricted fellowships and those restricted to specific fields of study, honorary traveling fellowships furnishing credentials but no stipend, and the national award programs that included National Defense Graduate Fellowships, National Defense Foreign Language Fellowships, National Science Foundation Graduate Traineeships, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration Predoctoral Traineeships. Teaching assistantships for graduate students of excellent scholarship, teaching fellowships for mature scholars, and research assistantships were handled through the individual departments.

A small number of grants-in-aid for travel and unusual research needs were available to students well advanced in doctoral research.

In a different category were the Work-Study Program and the Special Opportunity Scholarship Program. The Work-Study Program, begun in 1965, was designed to provide jobs for needy students and to contribute to the fight against poverty by providing meaningful work in the community. The Special Opportunity Scholarship Program sought to encourage high school students with intellectual promise but little likelihood of attending college to come to the campus for a seven-week course of special study. The program, which began in summer of 1964, was financed by contributions from the University faculty and staff, with matching funds from the Regents, and was directed by a Faculty Committee on Special Scholarships.

Food Services
Service to residence halls and the dining room commons comprised the bulk of the student food services on the Berkeley campus. Beginning with the first residence hall, Bowles, in 1929, service was extended to Stern Hall in 1942, to Fernwald-Smythe Halls in 1946, to Residence Hall Unit 1 in 1959, to Residence Hall Unit 2 in 1960, and to Residence Hall Unit 3 three years later. By the mid-1960s, the halls served about 10,000 student meals daily.

The dining commons were opened in 1948 as a campus cafeteria located in temporary buildings moved from Camp Parks. Their primary task was to provide meals for the returning veterans on campus, and did so at the rate of 1,200 meals daily. That year, the central commissary was established to supply food for students as well as for the Faculty Clubs, International House, and Cowell Hospital; it furnished prepared items, canned foods, and dry stores.

When the dining commons moved to new buildings in the Student Union complex in 1960, capacity and patronage increased sharply, reaching 12,000 meals per day by 1965. Three of its restaurants operated above planned capacity; the Golden Bear, which was not open at night, was the exception. Special foods were prepared for religious days observed by the students, with avoidance of foods offensive to particular groups. In addition, catering was available for special events ranging from banquets to coffee service.

Estimates for the dining commons contemplated an annual gross income of $800,000; in 1965, the gross income was $1.5 million. Apart from construction subsidies, the food services were self-supporting.

Housing Services Office
In the fall of 1946, the pressing problems of student housing were recognized by the creation of a central housing office, under a housing supervisor, on each existing campus of the University. The office at Berkeley provided services for students, staff, and faculty. For students, the office processed applications for University-operated residence halls and for married student housing and, in addition, maintained card files of accommodations listed by private owners in the area and in adjacent communities. The Living Accommodations Inspector was under the jurisdiction of the Housing Services Office and those privately owned boarding houses that were inspected and received University approval, as well as boarding houses, rooms in private homes, and apartments not inspected by the University were included on these lists.

Special Services Office
Following World War II, the University's responsibilities relating to veterans were handled by the coordinator of veterans' affairs. In 1951, the supervisor of special services was designated to maintain liaison between veterans and the Veterans Administration, the State Department of Veterans' Affairs, and other agencies offering educational benefits to veterans. The office was further directed to assist veterans in becoming assimilated into the life and spirit of the University. By 1952, the supervisor was located within the Office of the Dean of Students and special services dealt with veterans enrolled under Public Law 346 (G. I. Bill) and Public Law 16 (Rehabilitation). Additional responsibilities developed during the post-Korea period, many related to the National Defense Education Act of 1958 in the area of student loans, student fellowships, and special-purpose grants. In addition, the supervisor administered Regents' Loans and Health Profession Student Loans, and was increasingly involved with the work-study program established under the Economic Opportunity Act. His office handled all Selective Service matters, certifying full-time student status to draft boards for student deferments. By the mid-1960s, veterans' dependents qualifying for educational benefits from federal or state programs because of the death or disability of a father, were also included in the special services program.

Student and Alumni Placement Center
In 1918, the California Alumni Association introduced a job placement service (the Military Bureau) specifically for University alumni who were veterans of World War I. Service was also extended to non-veteran alumni although an official agency for this task was not established until 1923, when the alumni association, at the request of President William Wallace Campbell, introduced the Alumni Bureau of Occupations, with the University sharing in the cost of operation. The bureau gradually took over the responsibility of student placement. The demands upon it were such that in 1934, President Sproul directed that the University assume complete responsibility for the bureau. The name was changed to the Student and Alumni Placement Center in November, 1958.

In 1923, the Alumni Bureau of Occupations was composed of the manager and one staff member. In 1965, there were 27 members of the staff of the placement center, 19 of whom were professional employment interviewers. The center provided services to students seeking part-time and full-time temporary employment and vacation employment to meet their financial obligations, and prospective degree candidates and alumni seeking career positions in industry, business, and government.

The first manager of the Alumni Bureau of Occupations was Mrs. K. C. Gilkey, who served for a short period of time during 1923. She was followed by Mrs. Leslie Ganyard (1923-28), Miss Vera Christie (1928-56), and Robert Calvert, Jr. after 1956; Mrs. Nansi Corson served as acting manager between 1956-58 and after l963 while Mr. Calvert took a leave of absence.

Student Counseling Center
Student Counseling Center was established in 1952 through student petition to the Regents for services previously available only to the returning veterans of World War II. By the 1960s, it had become a very active University student personnel facility, serving an average of 4,000-5,000 students per year.

While the center's major function and primary responsibility was student counseling, it also served a resource and consultant function for University departments and administration on problems typically related to student development, adjustment, and evaluation. Consultation with community agencies and counseling and testing services for the general public were also provided on a limited basis.

In student counseling, the center provided the students the opportunity to explore problems arising during and out of academic life which could involve their studies, career, or their personal or marital relationships. The students often found satisfaction in the ready availability of a University staff member, with whom they could meet on a person-to-person basis and from whom they could expect professional assistance coping with problems or in realizing goals. Psychological testing, covering assessment of interests, aptitudes, and characteristics of personality, was also available for each student's personal information and was often utilized in clarifying problems or in making preparation for a suitable and appropriate course of study and a successful career.

The center also provided an extensive occupational library where the students, with the assistance of an occupational information specialist, could find a comprehensive collection of books and pamphlets describing occupations; directories and catalogs of colleges, professional and technical schools, and adult education programs; lists of scholarships, fellowships, and loans, and books on reading and study improvement. Thus, in one location, the center provided confidential interview facilities, psychological testing, and occupational information, any or all of which were readily available to the students at times they could fit into their schedules.

While student counseling was the center's primary function and responsibility, it also served as an internship training facility for graduate students in psychology and education and as a testing center for those students who were required to take special examinations for purpose of transfer or admission to professional or technical schools situated in other localities.

The center also provided indirect services to students through collaborative research with various academic and nonacademic departments of the University in order to develop or improve standards of admission and selection.

In addition to student and related University services, the Counseling Center provided a selection program of vocational and educational counseling to non-students on a cost-fee basis and handled numerous requests from the public for information on mental health resources and occupational and educational services.

Student Health Service
Prior to 1906, the Regents had accepted funds from the Prytanean Society and others for the purpose of equipping hospital beds for students, but the San Francisco earthquake dramatized the need for campus health facilities as urged by Dr. George F. Reinhardt. After the earthquake victims were given treatment in the old Hearst Gymnasium, President Wheeler authorized Dr. Reinhardt to have the leftover equipment moved into the Meyer residence, a brown-shingle farmhouse across the street from the Cowell Hospital. Dr. Reinhardt was named the first University physician, heading the earliest prepaid comprehensive program for student health in America.

Ernest V. Cowell, who died in 1911, left $250,000 for the construction of a hospital for the students; by 1926, a state bond issue provided an additional $200,000. The Ernest V. Cowell Memorial Hospital was opened in 1930, with many of the rooms equipped by individual donations of $300. In 1955-56, the trustees of the S. H. Cowell Foundation provided $1.5 million for the construction of an additional five-story wing, completed in 1959. For those students needing services and equipment not available through the student health service program, friends of Ruby L. Cunningham established a memorial fund in 1945; in 1956, the fund was set up as an endowment for handicapped students.

The necessity of providing hospital accommodations on-campus for students with contagious diseases comprised one of the earliest arguments for establishing an infirmary. At that time, privately owned hospitals refused admission to such patients; the student's whole house would be quarantined, thus isolating residents and keeping them from their classes. By the mid-1960s, the purpose of the student health service was described as insuring "to every student the opportunity, of enjoying, in health and with maximum profit, the benefits of his academic life." The service was supported by student fees, and recognized eligibility from the first day of registration to the last day of the semester or the date of withdrawal from the University; in special cases, eligibility could be extended. Additional charges were made for hospitalization exceeding 30 days and for care between semesters for students who planned to return to the University, but were unable to do so. In addition, a variety of clinic services and special health services were available to students. On the recommendation of a staff physician, students needing specially prepared meals could arrange to pay a nominal per-meal charge and to eat in the Cowell Hospital dining room. The Department of Psychological Medicine provided short-term therapy; speech therapy wais available at nominal charge following evaluation. The surgery clinic was primarily for diagnosis and recommendations and only urgent or emergency surgery was performed. Dental care was mainly emergency as well, with a charge for non-emergency treatment by appointment.

In addition to the normal campus services, the infirmary became a post hospital for the military during the influenza epidemic of 1918; later the hospital dealt with a 1943-44 scarlet fever epidemic on campus by growing and purifying its own supply of the newly discovered drug, penicillin. The Donner Metabolic Unit, built in 1953, was integrated with hospital services, but funded and professionally controlled by Donner Laboratory.

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