Transcript of Bear in Mind Dec. 4, 2006: The world of intercollegiate athletics at UC Berkeley

It's been a golden year for the Golden Bears. Another thrilling football season, three national team championships, six individual NCAA champions, and a seventh place finish in the Director's Cup — Cal's best-ever showing in the national ranking of collegiate athletics programs.

On this edition of Bear in Mind, Chancellor — and cheerleader-in-chief — Robert Birgeneau takes an in-depth look at Cal Athletics, explores the student athlete experience with three of Berkeley's finest, and examines the university's support system for the academic aspirations of its athletes.

In our first segment, Athletic Director Sandy Barbour joins the chancellor for a discussion about building the foundations for success on and off the field…. and a preview of the projects that will usher in a new era of high performance.

 

Part one: Honors and future growth of the Athletic Department

Chancellor Birgeneau: Well, Sandy, both of us have been here for a little over two years and I know it's been a very exciting time for both of us in many domains, but especially in intercollegiate athletics. I'd be really interested in hearing your perspectives on what your first two years at Cal have been like.

Athletic Director Sandy Barbour; an artist's rendering of the proposed new Memorial Stadium project; Barbour talks to Chancellor Birgeneau.

Sandy Barbour: As you know, it's been fast and furious for all of us, but it really has been a fabulous two years. I think first and foremost, all of the reasons that I was excited about this opportunity and that I accepted your wonderful invitation to be the Athletic Director here have all come true. This is a place of excellence and one where we just have such great passion about everything we do, and certainly athletics has been included in that.

Birgeneau: Now, before coming to Cal, of course, you played a leadership role at some other great universities, with great intercollegiate athletics programs, with great athletes, with deeply loyal alumni. How would you compare the situation here at Cal for all of those components of our community, compared to those at other institutions? What's special about Cal?

Barbour: Well, I certainly have been fortunate to be at some fabulous places, all of which were very academically rigorous, which is one of my criteria, but I think what is unique about Cal is the level at which we make that combination in all those things, excellence from an academic standpoint with our student athletes, excellence from the standpoint in the breadth of excellence across our 27 athletics programs, the passion with which those who care about this program exhibit their support, the level to which they demand that we do it in the right way, that our student athletes are true students, that everything we do represents this institution in the right way.

Birgeneau: So I'm going to give you a chance to brag. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the Director's Cup this past year and how our teams did.

Barbour: The NACDA Directors' Cup is an award that signifies overall excellence and gives you points for where you finish in different sports, and so it really is — it's kind of the Heisman of college athletics, instead of just football, and it's awarded by institution, and our highest finish ever was 7th in the 05-06 season.

Birgeneau: Wonderful.

Birgeneau: Now of course, not everyone in the Cal community is as strong a supporter of intercollegiate athletics as I am, and indeed there are some people who are skeptical about all of the effort we put into having such a high-caliber athletics program at a very elite academic institution like UC Berkeley. How do you respond to the critics about the importance of an intercollegiate athletics program that involves, after all, over 900 athletes and 27 varsity teams?

Barbour: I certainly believe, if done correctly, that not only are there great benefits to the individual student athletes that participate in the programs, and the kinds of things that they learn about discipline and teamwork and testing their limits, but you and I both have witnessed here in the last two-plus years the power that exists on campus in terms of a successful athletics program bringing together not only the student body and the campus itself, but the entire campus community.

Barbour: I think that here at Berkeley, we have to do athletics in the same way we do any of our other endeavors, and that's we strive for excellence. We must conduct ourselves in a way that brings great pride to the university. Our 900-plus student athletes must be diligent students. If we're not willing to do it in that manner, then I don't think it fits at Cal, but the good news there is, I do believe not only that we can, but that we are conducting our athletics programs in that manner. I do not believe that excellence in athletics and excellence in the academic venue are exclusive. I believe you can have it all. Witness our three national championships last year, our top 10 [placement in the] NACDA Directors' Cup, the number of young people in our programs who are achieving 3.0 GPAs and higher; 20 of our 27 teams hold a 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA. So I really do believe, I've always said, that what we need to do on a daily basis is mirror the mission of the university, which is to be excellent in our pursuits. If we are able to do that, which I think we are proving we can, then I do believe we are a great fit.

Birgeneau: Of course one of the things that you and I have been working hard on for the last while is the Student [Athlete] High Performance Center. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that, about how it's going, and what it's going to do for our student athletes?

Barbour: I've been in this business for over 25 years, and I've have never been involved in a project that has such passion. The Student Athlete High Performance Center, which is essentially Phase One of the Memorial Stadium Renovation Project, will encompass what we've been working on for actually a couple of years, which is namely our Student Athlete High Performance initiative, and the phase one SAHPC will really become the physical manifestation of that. Phase One will include offices, meeting rooms, locker rooms for 13 of our 27 programs — football and 12 of our Olympic sport programs — and then the heart of the building itself will house sports medicine, strengthening and conditioning, and a number of the high performance elements. And the high performance concept is an integrated approach to each and every student athlete and what elements lead to high performance. By taking a unique approach — we don't know of anybody else in the country that's doing this — and really taking sports medicine and strengthening and conditioning and nutrition and sports psychology, all of the performance-enhancement kind of elements, and really integrating them and taking one look at each and every one of our student athletes, I'm very, very excited about that approach as well as the Student Athlete High Performance Center itself, which would be a great, great addition to our student athletes

Birgeneau: And once we've completed the high performance center we're both looking forward to, what are your plans for the stadium and other possible new athletic facilities?

Barbour: Certainly the Memorial Stadium renovation is our top priority. Phase One will really address the needs of our student athletes. Subsequent Phases Two and Three will address the bowl itself and our customer amenities and that certainly is a huge project for us. We are challenged from a facilities standpoint, not only from the land here on our own campus, but a number of our facilities have gone for a long time without some attention.

Birgeneau: Now Sandy, you yourself I know were an outstanding student athlete in college. Why don't you brag a little bit and tell us about yourself?

Barbour: It certainly depends on which of my coaches you talked to and what kind of revisionist history they're willing to come out with. But I was fortunate enough to be a pretty good field hockey player and have an opportunity to advance. I was on some of the Olympic development programs. I was not a very good basketball player — I was very passionate about it, loved it — but it gave me two different perspectives. One, of a student athlete who got a lot of playing time, and the other, a student athlete that didn't, and I think that's really helped me with those two varied perspectives. But I know through the time we've spent together, both you and Mary Catherine, both very passionate about competition and sport, what is it about Cal athletics that really gets you going?

Birgeneau: First of all, when I was young myself, not at the level you managed, but I liked to play all kinds of competitive sports, whether it was team sports, so I played on baseball, football, basketball teams — tried my hand at golf but I wouldn't want to tell you what my scores are —

Barbour: I'm not revealing mine either!

Birgeneau: I still play squash. So I always have enjoyed playing sports myself, and I admire seeing people who do it really well. So one of the personal pleasures I get from sports here at Cal is that so many of our students are so outstanding, not just as students but in their athletics. The other thing is that it's absolutely uplifting for the student body as a whole — whether I'm in Haas Pavilion when our women are running away from UCLA, or the men having a great game and the roof is practically caving in with the cheers, or at the football games, like a number that we've had this season, where there's just been such a buzz and the students have been so excited and possibly the high point for the season was when George Smoot, our Nobel Prize winner in Physics, led the "Go Bears" cheer. That for me was a symbol about what's great about Berkeley.

Barbour: And I have had so many comments about George Smoot and leading the cheers and being part of the coin-toss ceremony, and when you and George first walked out on the field, the student section chanting, "Nobel, Nobel, Nobel," that that could only happen at Berkeley.

Birgeneau: Thank you, Sandy, this has really been an enjoyable conversation.

Barbour: And thank you for having me. Go Bears!

Birgeneau: Go Bears!

 

Part two: The student-athlete balancing act

Up next, Chancellor Birgeneau takes an up close and personal look at the student-athlete experience with women's soccer team member Anna Key, basketball player Omar Wilkes, and sophomore* sprinter Francesca Weems.

Chancellor Birgeneau: So Omar, Anna, and Francesca, I'm really interested to hear from you what it's like to be a student athlete at Cal, and I'm interested especially in student and athlete both. That is to say, what are the challenges you face as an athlete and how it is to be a student at Cal, and the special challenges that student athletes face in trying to be outstanding in both? So, simple question, and I'll ask each of you to tell me about your experiences and that challenge in particular.

(L-r) Basketball guard Omar Wilkes, soccer goalkeeper Anna Key, and sprinter Francesca Weems.

Francesca Weems: OK, I guess I'll start. As a student athlete, it can be complicated, being able to balance academic and athletic. It can be challenging at times, but I like it just because I think it gives me an extra edge on people. As a student athlete, I feel like I'm able to balance both and do it in a good way, and I think it makes people look up to you as a person, because it's like, "Wow, she's not only a student balancing her school work, she's an athlete as well. That takes up a very large portion of our time." So that's why I enjoy it.

Birgeneau: So what year are you in school?

Weems: I'm a second year.

Birgeneau: And have you chosen a major yet?

Weems: Yeah, I want to do mass communications; I want to do television broadcasting.

Birgeneau: Good! So this is a terrific start for you. So, Anna?

Anna Key: I would say that the greatest challenge of being a student athlete here at Cal is at both levels, the demand is to be excellent. We are an excellent sports school and we are an excellent academics school, so your authority figures in both of those fields — your professors and your coaches — expect a certain level from you and sometimes that can be pressing, just in terms of time, in terms of emotional commitment, in terms of just the hours and effort you spend in both. But as Francesca said, I don't think that I would rather do it in any other way. I think you'll find many athletes here who are exceptional athletes and exceptional students just because they're the type of people who demand that from themselves, and this is the type of institution that really supports that.

Birgeneau: One of my daughters also played Division One soccer, with a runner-up Academic All-American, and I know in her life she had to be perfectly disciplined. How do you balance it?

Key: Well, I think that one of the biggest challenges that we face is just time management. The amount of time that you're going to spend on your school work, the amount of time you're going to spend in practice, and for a lot of us, we've got to have a little social life in there somewhere.

Birgeneau: Oh, really?!

Key: Or else you go crazy! So just in terms of managing your time, I think the one thing that's interesting is that for me personally, I know a lot of my teammates, we actually get better grades in season, because you are on such a disciplined schedule.

Birgeneau: So which year are you in and what is your major?

Key: I'm a fourth year, and I'm majoring in peace and conflict studies with an emphasis in human rights.

Birgeneau: Wonderful, great. We'll talk a little bit later, but I understand a little bit better your other activities given your major. Omar?

Omar Wilkes: I think these ladies hit it on the head. The biggest difficulty is definitely time management. Managing being on the road with your team, so the rigors of school work, taking tough classes. I know myself, I'm taking quite a few units because I'm trying to graduate in time. I transferred from Kansas. A lot of the units didn't transfer over so I'm just making up work. Time commitment to practice, traveling, teammates, small social life — it's definitely difficult but these ladies hit it on the head. Time management is the toughest part of it all.

Birgeneau: So what brought you here to Berkeley? Why did you chose to transfer here from Kansas — because you wanted to be on a winning basketball team?

Wilkes: That, but also it's just a great academic school, a great environment, and has community. I just think it's a great merger of academics and athletics, and that's ultimately why I decided. And I'm a California boy, so it doesn't hurt being home.

Birgeneau: Great! And your major?

Wilkes: Social welfare.

Birgeneau: Social welfare? Great, good. So you two are going to rescue the world, and you're going to tell the world about it. That's wonderful.

So tell me, in your attempts to excel in both academics and athletics, of course you need a lot of support, and maybe each of you separately can talk a little bit about the academic support that you're getting. And don't be reluctant to say you don't, because if there are ways we can make it better, we'd like to do so. The chancellor doesn't have much power, but I can influence!

Wilkes: I have a great staff of advisers and tutors that help me. I find no difficulty in staying on top of my classes and coursework and passing my classes. I'm sure there's difficulties for some, but I feel we're provided with ample aid. Everyone should be able to adjust and do just fine in season, off season, any time.

Key: I'd say the academic support system starts from your coach down, and if your coach really emphasizes the importance of getting good grades and staying on top of your school work, I think that sets the tone. Definitely our advisers are on top of us and make sure that we're taking the right classes and doing well, so I think that helps a lot.

Weems: Yes, same here. I think that my academic adviser is wonderful, and she helps me with all my classes. If I ever need a tutor I just come to her, so it's a very supportive system that we have here. And similar to Anna as well, my coach is very rigorous. He's very tough about getting good grades and being on top of it.

Birgeneau: How do you think that your experience as an intercollegiate athlete will contribute to your ability to be successful in your life at whatever you chose to do?

Wilkes: I think just the value of hard work will actually pay off. I go to practice every day and it's a challenge, an uphill battle, but I've learned to accept the challenge every day and face it with optimism. The importance of being able to relate to — I play team sports and so there's team chemistry and synergy that you have to have with your coworkers or whoever you deal with in your life. I think that will help in the real world. I'd say those two things are probably the most important that I'll carry over from my sports experience into the after-college life.

Weems: I guess the biggest thing that I'll take from being a Cal athlete is time management, just because in high school I had good time management, but if you're able to balance sports and academics as well, you'll be able to be successful in the business world, I believe.

Key: I read once, or maybe my mom told me, that at top law firms in New York the first thing they ask you is, "What sport did you play in college?" I think that being a student athlete promotes a lifestyle of hard work, of discipline, of time management…all of the things that these guys have said. I think being a student athlete is actually going to be more valuable to me in the future than any other classes I took or any other experience I had. Being part of a team, knowing how to deal with people, knowing how to deal with time, knowing how to deal with pressure — all of these things come out of this experience.

Birgeneau: I played a lot of sports also when I was young, team sports, and I'll add one more thing, because I agree with everything that you've said. I didn't play as well as the three of you, but I think sports are important for everyone. The additional thing that you learn is, a very important lesson, is that you can lose. And it's not the end of the world.

All: Definitely.

Birgeneau: And learning how to deal with losing and coming back and winning the next week, I think, in some ways is one of the most important life lessons. But one of the things that I've always found in sports is that — as frankly the football team experienced between Tennessee and Minnesota — you can behave way below your own personal expectations and rather than giving up, you do the opposite and you say, "I know I'm a lot better than that." Certainly in real life, you don't always win. You have adversity.

Talking about adversity, I read a brief article about you, Francesca, and you certainly have an atypical background with students at an elite university, but then you obviously not only have survived but thrived, and you won a Bill Gates Millennium Scholarship, and you could have gone anywhere and you chose to come to Cal. Why don't you talk about yourself a little bit, as much as you want to, and tell us why, with your particular background, you chose Cal to come to.

Weems: I feel like receiving the scholarship gave me a second chance because my childhood was definitely not typical…very difficult . I grew up in foster care, I was in 20 different foster homes —

Birgeneau: Twenty?

Weems: Twenty, yeah. Part of my life I was semi-homeless, so ending up in my last foster home and receiving the scholarship to go to any school that I wanted was simply a blessing. I chose Cal because it's the best school. I'm taking this scholarship as a second chance, as a blessing, as a chance to better my life and hopefully better others.

Birgeneau: You know, you're going to end up as president of the United States if you just measure the rate at which your life has been progressing!

All: I'll vote for you!

Birgeneau: So, Anna, I guess you recently received both the Pac-10 Conference and NCAA Division One Women's Sportsmanship Awards, which are both very prestigious and hard to come by. Can you tell us a little bit about them?

Key: I think the awards had a lot to do with things that I do off the field, more so than on the field. I spent the summer before this in Malawi, which is a country in Africa, and through a professor of mine here, Sam Mchombo [a Malawi native and associate professor of linguistics], he set me up with families to stay with in Malawi and I ended up working in a really small village with a lot of kids, AIDS orphans. And one of the opportunities that I saw there was an opportunity to promote women's sports. I know how positive soccer has been in my life and how it's kept me on a positive track toward success. I see that community, with everything they're struggling with, I see in that community an opportunity for girls to embark on a similar path. A lot of what I did there was set up youth soccer leagues for younger girls — just giving them the bare necessities, you know, a ball, a couple of bucks here or there. So I think that's what the award was about.

Wilkes: Let me interrupt. A lot of time people receive sportsmanship awards and they don't deserve it or it's false, but there's not a person that I can think of that deserves it more than Anna Key, on or off the field. And I'm not just saying that because cameras are on. She's being modest, she doesn't want to go in depth, but there's a lot of things here and it's well deserved. [Read more about Key's trip in this Nov. 2005 Berkeleyan article.]

Birgeneau: Thank you so much, Omar, Anna, and Francesca. This was just great, and you're just such model students. It's been so much fun.

Wilkes: Thank you for having us!

Weems: Thank you.

Birgeneau: And…

All: Go Bears!

 

Part three: The support system for student-athletes

Up next, the chancellor discusses the athletic-academic balance with Women's Basketball Coach Joanne Boyle, Athletic Study Center Director Derek Van Rheenen, and Vice Provost [of Undergraduate Education] Christina Maslach.

Birgeneau: Here at Berkeley, we talk about "student athletes." What does that phrase mean to each of you?

Clockwise from top left: Women's Basketball Coach Joanne Boyle, the Athletic Study Center, and Vice Provost Christina Maslach, ASC Director Derek Van Rheenen with a student-athlete.

Christina Maslach: I think, for me, it means students first, but just as important is what else students are doing on this campus. I tend to think of all of our students as having one or more hyphens to go along with being a student, it could be student-leader, a performer in the arts, student athlete. It's a terrific thing to think of what opportunities we can provide to really develop all of the hyphens.

Derek Van Rheenen: I would say, as a former student athlete, I think of it as excellence and the opportunity to pursue excellence on the athletic field as well as in the classroom, and to fulfill your potential intellectually and athletically.

Joanne Boyle: Mine would be passion. As a coach, I recruit student athletes who have a passion for their sport, and I think when you look at what you're trying to do in terms of building the program, you're also looking for student athletes who have a passion for their academics as well.

Birgeneau: I'd like each of you to talk a little bit about how we, as an institution, support the whole student, both inside and outside of the classroom, and how do you appraise the job that we actually do in supporting our student athletes — helping them to maintain the balance between their athletic endeavors and their academic endeavors.

Maslach: I think on campus as a whole, we recognize that all of our students who come in, we have an incredible diversity of talents, backgrounds, and skills, and also challenges that they may face in achieving their personal best here. So we really, as a campus, try and identify a range of services and supports that will allow many different kinds of students to actually really do well here at Cal. Whether it's their dealing with disabilities or they're the first student in the family to come to college, all of these types of things. We have a range of services, student learning services and others, and I think the student Athletic Study Center fits right into that larger vision of figuring out a way to provide that kind of support for the students who are really trying to achieve.

Van Rheenen: Certainly I'm biased, because as the director of the Athletic Study Center I think we do a phenomenally good job at supporting student athletes, and that's a campuswide commitment. I think that the fact that we're the No. 1 public institution in the world, and that we're in the Top 10 of the Director's Cup, demonstrates that we take what we do seriously and we do it with excellence. At the Athletic Study Center we support students primarily in terms of their academic development, and hopefully individualizing it in such a way whereby students are able to craft a course where they can pursue a major and ultimately graduate from the institution. That commitment starts from the moment we recruit them. We believe that they will come here, they will have a successful athletic careers, but even more importantly, they're graduate from this fine institution.

Boyle: I try to encourage my student athletes to really use the services on campus. Their time commitment to our sport is really overwhelming, and whether they need it for personal reasons or academic reasons or just to get involved in the community, doing community service, my job as coach is like a teacher: it's how do you use this great institution to better yourself? So I encourage them to go out and get involved in other activities, in other support groups on campus, and do community service to give back to the community. I think that's my role as a coach, to help them figure that out as they go through their four years here.

Birgeneau: Community services, class, challenges — Berkeley is not, after all, a simple place to be a student. And to be in the top 25 basketball team — isn't that asking a lot of your players?

Boyle: It is, but I think it's my job to recruit student athletes that have the same vision that we do as a staff. What is that vision? For me, it's about getting up in the morning and using your day, and I think the big challenge in that is time management. How do we best serve these student athletes so that they get the best out of their four years, manage their time, but take advantage of all the services that are here on this wonderful campus.

Birgeneau: Derrick, I'm going to give you a chance to brag. Back in 2004, the [Los Angeles] Times had a profile of our Athletic Study Center. What did they say?

Van Rheenen: It was a wonderful piece of journalism, in my mind, particularly since it was in the L.A. Times Magazine and the cover story, right where UCLA and USC recruit. It definitely said that we are a model for the nation in terms of our academic support for student athletes, and that we, as an institution, care deeply about commitment to these young men and women. That commitment is for earning a meaningful degree, and when you earn a meaningful degree from Berkeley, you really have it all.

Maslach: One thing that I think came out in the article about that is what's different about our program as compared to many others, is that the Athletic Study Center is actually on the academic side of the house, and so any kind of issues like "is athletics running it and giving the students a pass?" Well, it doesn't happen. This is an important model, and I think the take-home quote from the LA Times Magazine was, if there is a Heisman for homework, Berkeley would win.

Birgeneau: That's great — we'd like both types! And I think the way the football team is doing, we probably have a couple of candidates. Joanne, I'm just impressed by your passion for the players and for your players being multidimensional people. How typical do you think you are as a Cal coach — do you think this is universal of the coaches here?

Boyle: I do. I've only been here for a year, and when I came I was amazed, when sitting at the first head coaches meeting, talking about their vision for their athletes, their vision for their programs, and academics always came first in terms of conversation. We're not here to sacrifice their academics for getting on the road two hours earlier or getting an extra practice in. I was amazed for 27 sports to have that kind of commitment from every coach. I think when you're in an academic institution, you seem to attract both coaches who feel that way and student athletes.

Birgeneau: Christina, of course all of us are enjoying our Saturday afternoons this autumn, I've been just as happy to see some recent data that along with our success on the field, our football team's GPA has gone up, the graduation rate has gone up. What do you attribute that to?

Maslach: Well, the success of the students, in terms of their academic performance, has been something that's been a No. 1 concern for the Athletic Study Center, for the coaches, and there really has been a concerted effort to make sure that student athletes are doing as well and taking advantage of as many opportunities as possible to achieve. So yes, when you look at the statistics, we have a lot to be very proud of. And on one of those happy Saturdays, at the Washington game, almost 500 of our student athletes were honored for having achieved 3.0 average GPAs or above, and that's really quite astonishing. Certainly it goes against the stereotype that's often out there of the "dumb jock." When you look at the numbers in terms of how well they're performing and graduating and so forth, that stereotype doesn't have a lot of legs.

Birgeneau: I've talked to some student athletes who take umbrage at the perception of some other students, and possibly others in the community, that they're really here as athletes, not as students, and that their academic successes are really because they get all kinds of special privileges. How, in your opinion, do these perceptions correspond to reality?

Maslach: I don't think there's as much of a reality to the stereotype as people think. What some students think is a special perk is that they get to enroll earlier to make sure that they have sufficient units to meet NCAA requirements. It's to meet the requirements, not because we're saying, "Oh, you get to go first," as opposed to somebody else in some way. So it's not a perk. The other thing that I think people often don't realize is that student athletes have to essentially manage two jobs, both in the classroom and in athletics, and so to have to take their exams on the road is actually not a better situation for them at all. It's harder: you're in the midst of something else and now you have to sit down and concentrate for this hour on your physics exam.

Van Rheenen: I think the onus of the responsibility of combating the dumb jock stereotype is for student athletes to demonstrate their intellectual abilities and their ability to articulate in the classroom and to demonstrate to faculty and fellow students alike that they are here for an education and that they take their education very seriously. I think it's always wonderful if a student athlete who may not clearly be a student athlete in a class or may be getting the best grade invites their faculty member to a game and says, "By the way, this is also an important facet of my education here and I'd love you to come out on Saturday." So I think the onus ultimately falls on the student athletes to make certain that they don't engage in behaviors that support a stereotype.

Boyle: If I can brag on Derrick for a minute here, because I heard a story that he was here in school in the '80s and there was always a stereotype of athletes going to get help, and came back and got his Ph.D. and wanted to start an center where the perception was athletes have a really rigorous schedule and it's OK to go ask for help. I really feel like that's been embraced on campus with the athletic department, and I really feel like, as a coach, if I have a student who is a C student, and is doing everything they possibly can and they're only capable of being a C student, I'm OK with that, as long as we're using all the resources. But if they're a C student and they're capable of being an A or B student, then why not get them the help to be able to do that? Because their time commitment to us as an athletic program is very tough. I've been at two other institutions and I've never seen an athletic study center that supports these kids more than Derrick and his staff. I just feel that it's that important that it's talked about on this campus, to dismiss those stereotypes of the dumb jock.

Birgeneau: This Top 25 ranking that I just learned about, that may end up putting a lot of pressure on your players right now, on the athletic side. How do you think that's going to affect their ability to manage this incredible balance this year?

Boyle: Well, I would tell anybody, come to practice for the first three days and then tell me if you're going to put us in the top 25. It's a blessing in that, I think, last year there weren't any expectations on us coming in — new staff and a new team — and trying to figure all this out, we've really put things in place. It's every part of their life that we're trying to help them with, not just basketball. We all are in this business because we want to excel. Just as the academic community wants to excel, we want to excel as coaches, and with that comes a little bit more pressure, but it's what we all work for. I think our kids and our student athletes are very similar. They thrive under pressure, to be honest, they really do. They embrace that. If you would have seen them at the NCAA tournament, they were more like, "Bring it on!" That's their motto, and I try to encourage them as much with that in terms of basketball as I do in terms of their studies.

Birgeneau: Any final comments?

Van Rheenen: I'd like to just really congratulate the coaching staff here, Joanne included, in terms of their support of the student athlete and the scholars of the student athlete identity, because without them it will not happen. One of the successes, for example, is the football team. They have a higher GPA than they've had in a decade, and the graduation rates are clearly going up — a credit to Jeff Tedford and his coaching staff, because we work at the Athletic Study Center with them very closely in terms of an academic game plan, working with each individual student athlete and their successes. As Joanne says, it's not about standardizing the education of the student athlete, it's about individualizing it so that they can find intellectual fire and they can have an epiphany like "I love studying physics!" for example, or "I love studying cultural anthropology." The hope is, by the end of their careers here, that they have not only gotten it done on the court or the field, but they've gotten in done in the classroom.

Birgeneau: Thank you so much for this. We talk all the time about Berkeley being about excellence in all of our endeavors, and it's clear that the three of you contribute to guaranteeing our excellence both in the gym and on the playing fields, and in the classroom as well. We can all be extremely proud of our efforts here for our student athletes.

Thanks for joining us for this edition of Bear in Mind…from more information on Cal Athletics, the teams and the student-athletes be sure to visit the Golden Bears website at CalBears.com.

 

Francesca Weems is a second-year student, not a freshman as identified in the voiceover.

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