From the article:

The 18-person task force formed to come up with a solution to combine the school’s academic name (UC Berkeley) with its athletics name (Cal) produced an 18-page report that concludes this:

Recommendation #3

Shift the athletics identity to Cal Berkeley in both name and logo. Develop a visual identity that clearly communicates this shift.

In essence, the “Cal” and “UC Berkeley” names were merged for sports in this recommendation.

  • wjrii
    4•1 year ago

    Between all the clueless snobbery and the overly rigid “master plan” law that legally precludes CSU campuses from offering useful doctoral programs, I get a real cringe vibe from the UC system as a whole and Berkeley in particular.

    The competing Texas systems have subtler differences in mission and THECB is often dumb but has a lot more flexibility to do right by the communities that the universities serve. Our most serious issues seem to flow from culture-war assholes in state government.

    • @ToasterOverlordOPMEnglish
      5•1 year ago

      Outsiders looking in find it crazy that Texas has 6 different university systems, but as you point out it works pretty well now.

      But it didn’t always. For example, from UT Arlington’s Wikipedia article:

      Efforts began to turn ASC into a four-year institution, but the Texas A&M system board refused to consider the idea since it was possible that ASC could grow to be larger than College Station.

      …

      Enrollment reached 9,116 students in the fall of 1963, a larger total than the Texas A&M College Station campus. Although Texas A&M proposed a reorganization for the system to recognize ASC’s growth, A&M System President James Earl Rudder resisted developing ASC into a university with graduate programs. Rudder and the Texas A&M board of directors, viewing ASC as a threat to the College Station campus, withheld construction funding and blocked degree development

      …

      Joining the UT System was of immediate consequence. In 1966 the Graduate School was established with an initial slate of six master’s degrees and new construction projects started.

      • wjrii
        4•1 year ago

        Yeah, there are stupid, inefficient turf battles like A&M holding down UTA, or A&M acting like Tech shouldn’t have a vet school(!!!), or UH and UT fighting over that property in Houston, but it also means that the systems can grow. UTD and UTA mean there’s nobody thinking about a university in south Dallas? UNT can help with that. Tarleton State doesn’t need a ton of PhD programs, but they seem to have demand and expertise for one in criminal justice, so they have one. Same with SFA and forestry.

        • @ToasterOverlordOPMEnglish
          2•1 year ago

          SFA

          I heard they were flat broke and were leaning towards joining the A&M system so I just looked it up – I totally missed the news they joined the UT system this year. Glad they got to keep their name.

          • wjrii
            2•1 year ago

            I think there was a law passed that you can’t change the name of universities named after “Texas heroes.” Lord knows we wouldn’t want to lose such luminous legacies as Sul Ross and Mirabeau Lamar.