Charter Day: March 23rd, 1868 was the day that legislation was signed by California's Governor, creating the University of California. Today, Charter Day remains an important Berkeley campus ceremony but the date of the official celebration varies, taking place on some convenient day in March or April. The ceremony is usually held in Zellerbach Hall or the Greek Theatre. The California Alumni Association also continues to sponsor a major banquet/social gathering, usually in San Francisco, the same week as Charter Day.

Convocation: In earlier decades, new students at the Berkeley campus were typically welcomed by the President of the University with a formal speech at the beginning of the Fall semester. Chancellor I. Michael Heyman renewed the tradition of a major gathering for incoming students early in the Fall semester. Today, new students are greeted with a full "Welcome Week" of orientations, activities, and events, held the week before Fall classes begin; this week typically includes a convocation gathering.

Commencement: Individual departments and colleges have their own graduation ceremonies, many of them small and intimate affairs, scattered through the late Spring semester, along with one central Commencement to which graduating students are also invited, but at which individual diplomas are not handed out.

Campus Memorial Service: At this Fall event, open to all, the names of faculty, staff, and students who have died in the past year are read and University representatives make brief remarks. The service is usually held outdoors, west of California Hall, near the campus flagpole, and all the deceased are remembered, from first year undergraduates to emeriti Nobelists. At the base of the flagpole there is a small pedestal where names of the deceased are temporarily displayed, and the flag is sometimes brought to half-mast as deaths occur throughout the year.

Cal Day: Cal Day is an annual Spring event attended by tens of thousands of people, particularly prospective students and their families, alumni, and Bay Area residents. Scores of lectures, demonstrations, performances, and other events are held throughout the campus. Hundreds of student groups and campus departments and programs set up booths and hand out information, faculty give major public lectures, and most campus academic departments and units organize some special program.

last updated on 5/8/07