History of the ASUC Student Facilities on the Berkeley Campus

In the early decades of the Berkeley campus the University provided academic facilities, but students were on their own for “extracurricular” space. Students used off campus spaces including the private University YMCA, their own living groups, the old Harmon gymnasium and campus classrooms for their meetings and indoor activities. There was no central building that was a complete headquarters for student life and activities.

Students also organized their own activities, from recreational and competitive athletic teams to drama and debating societies, literary publications, and other clubs. One of the early student organizations, created in 1884, was the Students’ Cooperative Store, which was created as a membership organization to sell textbooks and school supplies to students at affordable prices. All of these activities were entirely student run, including intercollegiate athletics.

The original student lounge and coffee shop run by students was located in the southeast corner of North Hall, in the basement, before the ASUC was founded in 1887. No records exist regarding the funding for establishing the operations, but it was likely a collaboration between the students and the University since North Hall was an academic and administrative building in which some student services were provided. North Hall was built in 1873 and was the second building constructed at the Berkeley site of the fledgling University of California. The building occupied 29,880 gross square feet and cost $99,500. The funds came from a state appropriation. According to the Centennial Record, [the] “basement [was] devoted to student activities…and continued in use for student store and ASUC offices (to 1923)….”

Below is a photo of the lounge and “The Joint”, the ASUC’s original coffee shop.

Other Early Facilities

In the 1880s a small residential cottage on campus, near what is now Faculty Glade, was turned into a dining cooperative that served meals to students and professors. This was the beginning of on-campus dining facilities. Professors had their own dining room and gradually, as more restaurants and boarding houses were built off campus and student use of the dining cottage declined, the faculty took over most of the building and formed a “Dining Association” in 1894. The Dining Association would lead, at the turn of the century, to the establishment of the Faculty Club, which built its own headquarters building in 1902; the old dining cottage was used as a cookhouse.

In 1905/06 the Order of the Golden Bear, a discussion society for a limited number of men from the Senior Class, raised funds and constructed Senior Hall, east of the Faculty Club. The main room of this rustic log cabin was made available to the men of the Senior Class for their activities, and gradually came into use by other student groups. Although it was just a two room building with use restricted to certain students, Senior Hall is sometimes regarded as the “first student union” at Berkeley, and certainly the first free-standing building constructed entirely for student, non-academic, activities.

In 1911 women students, excluded from use of Senior (Men’s) Hall, built their own “Senior Women’s Hall”, formally named Girton Hall, on a knoll above the campus, south of the Greek Theatre. Like Senior Hall this was primarily a one room lodge, that served as a gathering place for women students and a site for their social and organizational events. Girton Hall was later moved further down the hillside, and is now a childcare facility north of the Haas Business School.

A third early building heavily used by students for their activities was Hearst Hall, originally built by UC Regent Phoebe Apperson Hearst next to her home on Channing Way, below Piedmont. Originally a reception hall, this building was donated by Hearst to the University in 1901 and moved to the edge of the campus, where it served as a women student social center and women’s gymnasium until it burned in 1922 (the current Hearst Gymnasium was built as a replacement in 1926).

Students at the Berkeley campus did not have dedicated facilities other than these small buildings and spaces until the 1920s. During this period, however student activities flourished, and many of them were consolidated under the leadership of the ASUC. The Cooperative Store, the Daily Californian newspaper, and the Blue and Gold yearbook, for instance, all ceased being independent organizations and became departments of the ASUC.

Stephen’s Union

By the end of World War I, there was a recognized acute need for better student service and activity spaces. The student population had grown from about 2,000 in 1900 to more than 10,000, and the ASUC and its activities and programs had grown accordingly. North Hall had been demolished in 1917 when Doe Library was constructed next door; the basement of North Hall was temporarily roofed over and continued in use as student space, but was clearly a poor substitute for a student union.

In 1923, student funds and gift funds were combined for the construction of a student union as a stand alone facility. This was Stephen’s Union, named after Professor Henry Morse Stephens whose support of student life at Cal earned him that distinction. The building offered 76,600 square feet of space and the total cost was $310,000 ($175,000 from the ASUC and $225,000 from the fund raising campaign). Designed by legendary campus architect John Galen Howard, it was sold to the Regents in 1959 “to provide funds for a new union” and renamed in 1964. Professor Stephens was a professor of History on the campus from 1902-1919. Here is commentary on the Stephen’s Union from the “California A Guide to the Golden State, 1939, pages 182 and 189):

The Associated Students of the University of California, a non- profit organization, is responsible for extracurricular activities on the campus. It operates a store and restaurant in Stephens Union, the students’ building. It arranges intercollegiate athletic contests, using the funds to support debating, dramatics, sport, student publications, and many other activities. The A.S.U.C. building contains offices for the athletic coaches and student executives and clubrooms for the students…. STEPHENS UNION is of Tudor Gothic design with turrets, buttresses, leaded casements and oriel bays.

Stephens Union also contained spaces for the offices of the California Alumni Association, putting alumni and student leadership together in the same facility. Stephens opened in 1923, and one of its first uses was as a temporary refugee center during the Berkeley Fire that destroyed some 600 buildings north of the campus in September of that year.

In 1931, in addition to the student union, the students, donors and University collaborated to build an adjacent administrative and publications building for student services and programs. It was named after a former ASUC President and Daily Californian editor who later a famous Progressive leader in California and was elected Lieutenant Governor of the State, before his early death.

John Morton Eshleman Hall (today Moses Hall), was built for the sum of $210,000, $125,000 of which was a gift and the remainder coming from ASUC and state appropriations according to the Centennial Record. Originally, the building was designed for the “Daily Californian” and other student publications owned by the ASUC, with facilities also provided for student musical groups. The Cal Band occupied part of the basement, singing groups had their headquarters upstairs, and what is now the Philosophy Library was the Publications Library, available for use by the hundreds of students who were staff members of the several ASUC funded publications.

Eshleman / Moses was sold to the Regents in 1959 to provide funds for the new student office building also named Eshleman Hall. See below a photo of Stephen’s Union and one of Eshleman (now Moses), Hall. The building was renamed for Professor Bernard Moses, another Professor of History who taught at Berkeley between 1878 and 1911.

The Blue and Gold of 1924 shows a photo of the new Stephen’s Union.

It is clear that the ASUC was a thriving business organization from its earliest years, when it was founded as an independent student government at a convention of student leaders.

Participation in the Association was voluntary, so it had to provide services and programs that student wanted in order to give them to purchase memberships and support businesses and programs. At the beginning of each academic term a large ASUC “card sales committee” would promote the ASUC and sell membership cards.

Here below is presented from the Blue and Gold of 1923, the year Stephen’s Union was opened, the accounts of the ASUC.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Union and New Eshleman Hall

The construction of Stephen’s Union and later Eshleman Hall were approximately forty years after the original facilities used by students for their gathering space, businesses and program activities.

During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s the student population and the campus continued to grow, new student needs and activities evolved, and old programs matured. World War II caused a halt in most campus construction, but after the War a large influx of students on the “G.I. Bill’ and the pent-up facilities needs that had developed during the Depression and the War years made themselves felt. In 1948 the California Alumni Association issued a report entitled “Students At Berkeley” which detailed the major deficiencies in student facilities and life, including lack of good or sufficient housing, parking, recreation space, and modern buildings devoted to student uses and activities.

The report called for the development of off-campus housing (which later resulted in construction of Units I, II, and III) as well as for a major new complex housing a student union, a dining commons, student organization and office space, and a large University auditorium / theater. Over the next 20 years almost all of its recommendations would be adopted.

In the early 1950s the California Alumni Association raised funds from its members to construct Alumni House, an office and event facility completed in 1953; the CAA moved out of Stephens Union into this new building. It was sited on a piece of land adjacent to the site that the “Students At Berkeley” report had recommended for the what was called the “California Student Center” complex.

The 40 year cycle repeated itself again by 1959-60 when almost four decades after the building of Stephen’s Union, the students outgrew the old facility and built the current student union complex on two square city blocks that had been acquired from private owners just south of the original edge of the campus (Telegraph Avenue originally ran up to the location of Sather Gate). As the old buildings were removed, part of the property was used for an intramural field, Union Field.

The cost of the current student union exceeded the revenues of the voluntary Association, so the students voted to fund a bond measure for thirty years to pay for the construction of the union (today the Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union), and the new Eshleman Hall. The need for guaranteed revenue to repay the bonds led to ASUC fees becoming essentially mandatory for the first time in ASUC history.

Cal professor of architecture Vernon DeMars and his professional partner Donald Hardison won a competition to design the new Student Center complex. Here is a photo of their proposed design:

From the Blue and Gold

Among the elements not included was a proposed “glockenspiel” (“an automatic musical instrument equipped with bells and associated with animated figures, installed on the exterior of a building”), with a replica of Cal’s mascot, Oski the Bear, chasing a Stanford “Indian” (previous Stanford University mascot replica), with a replica of the Stanford Axe, that would operate on the hour. The Plaza was to include flag poles (seen above in the model), and statues of famous persons to ring the open space. The class of 1929 later gave funds to dedicate the Golden Bear Statue now in the plaza.

The Student Union building, opened in 1961, was 171,700 gross square feet and cost $3,729,000. The Union and Dining Commons received funding from several sources: Regent Edwin W. Pauley gave $1,000,000, and Mr. and Mrs. C. L Tilden Jr. gave $100,000. $2,385,000 came from the combination of alumni contributions, ASUC funds including those from the sale of Stephen’s Union to the campus, $800,000 from the state, and a Housing and Home Finance Agency loan. (Centennial Record). According to the record the “Building operated by the ASUC and houses ASUC store, bowling lanes, barber shop, art activities, game rooms, meditation room, ballroom, meetings rooms, lounges, coffee shop (Bear’s Lair, seats 306 inside, 142 outside), box office, and the offices of elected and employed officers of the ASUC.”

The “mall” level of the Student Union originally contained the Student Store on only the southern half, near Bancroft Way. The northern half of the mall was used for student lounges and other spaces, including the ASUC Art Studio. The basement level contained a large bowling alley—then a popular student recreational activity—in what is now the textbook store area. Portions of Heller Lounge (now the Multicultural Center space) were used for campus art exhibits, in the days before the current Berkeley Art Museum was built and opened in 1970.

Here is a photo of the building, from the corner of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Ave., while it was under construction:

From the Blue and Gold

The construction of the former “Golden Bear” (today Cesar Chavez Student Center), came from the same pool of funds described above for the student union building, and originally housed the campus’ Central Dining Commons and “Golden Bear Restaurant.” These facilities replaced a temporary dining commons erected in the late 1940s, on the site of the current Music Library.

The building opened in 1960, was 48,840 gross square feet, and cost $1,272,000. The Centennial Record describes a building that “Includes Golden Bear Restaurant (seats 198 inside, and 150 outside, cafeteria (seats 824 inside, 122 outside), and Terrace (seats 216 inside, 449 outside)”. The Student Union Plaza (often referred to as “lower Sproul” plaza) was the roof of a parking garage operated by the campus parking system.

For a number of years, before Eshleman Hall and Zellerbach Hall were built, “lower Sproul” was half the size it is today, with the western portion undeveloped. The terrace of the Dining Commons was an active site for student gatherings and meals, and had views out towards San Francisco Bay, over Union Field, the intramural playing field.

The offices of the ASUC’s elected leaders originally moved from Stephens Union to the fourth floor of the new Student Union, where they occupied what are now some of the meeting rooms named for their wooden wall paneling.

Eshleman Hall was constructed in 1965 to re-house these offices and other student organization office and activity space. It contains 48,840 square feet. It cost $1,157,000 and was funded in part from the sale of the former publications building which bore the same name, to the University, and student fees funding debt service. The Centennial Record describes the building as “ASUC office and publications building (except for “The Pelican”), and Office of Intercollegiate Athletics, named after John M. Eshleman ’02, former ASUC President and Lt. Governor of California.” The top floor featured space, with magnificent views, for Eshleman Library, originally the student publication library and later a study center.

The fourth and final building of the Student Center complex was the University auditorium / theater, named Zellerbach Hall in honor of a donor. It was completed, along with the western half of the lower Sproul Plaza area in 1968, one century after the University itself had been chartered.

Several major changes have been made to the facilities over the years. In the mid 1980s most of the Dining Commons was closed, and remodeled into offices for student service departments, including counseling and the Disabled Students’ Program. The ASUC Store grew in size within the Student Union, as noted above, and expanded to both the basement level, and the Sproul Plaza level. A roofed bridge that used to connect the Dining Commons / Chavez Center and the Student Union was demolished, and the Sproul Plaza level of the Student Union was partitioned into several smaller spaces.

The current complex was opened when the Berkeley campus had a total student population of approximately 18,000. Today, the Cal has an enrollment of 34-35,000 students. It has been over forty years since the Student Union complex was opened, almost fifty years. The time has arrived to look at the next generation of facilities that the students will give to themselves as the kind of gift previous generations left as a legacy to those who followed them.

The Pelican Building

In 1957, Cal graduate Earl C. Anthony who had been a primary participant in the founding and long running campus humor magazine, “The Pelican” gave a gift of $90,000 to the University for construction of a 2,470 gross square foot building to house the operations of the magazine. According to the Centennial Record it was a “Gift for use of “Pelican” (student humor magazine) staff from its first editor.” The ASUC managed the building, since “The Pelican” was an ASUC operated publication.

After “The Pelican” was finally disbanded in the 1980s, the building was turned over by the ASUC to Graduate Student government. The G.A. (Graduate Assembly), is part of the ASUC which maintains and operates the Pelican Building. Graduate participation grew from members of the council in the 1950s to a separate organization under the ASUC representing the growing number of students pursuing graduate studies at Berkeley. Today, the G.A. represents 12,000 graduate students.

Prepared by: Nadesan Permaul, ASUC Auxiliary and Steve Finacom, Capital Programs
February 9, 2009