UC Berkeley is reimagining and redefining what a public university can be. As our global academic rankings regularly attest, we continue to be one of the world's great research universities despite dramatic reductions in state support for higher education. In fact, UC Berkeley is in many ways more public than ever before. We have a more diverse student body than in the past, and our capacity to act as a catalyst for social mobility has increased markedly: Berkeley graduates almost as many Pell Grant recipient students – from families earning less than $45,000 a year – as all of the private Ivy League universities combined.
These extraordinary accomplishments, however, must be maintained and enhanced even as we continue to confront budgetary pressures that threaten all parts of our mission, from our excellence to our accessibility, from our educational programs to our societal outreach.
Developing new, sustainable sources of revenue is one of several strategies being pursued at UC Berkeley to help establish a robust financial model for the future. To support UC Berkeley's efforts to develop new, sustainable sources of income, the New Revenue Initiative is enabling colleges, schools and administrative units across campus to explore, expedite and implement ideas that can generate new revenue.
The following Guiding Principles illustrate the New Revenue Initiative's approach to enabling the campus to generate new sources of revenue.
Supporting our mission of teaching, research and public service
UC Berkeley's mission is founded upon academic excellence, path-breaking research, and a proud history of public service. As we pursue new revenue opportunities, we must protect and advance the reputation of Berkeley, support the critical needs of our faculty, and maintain a focus on an outstanding student experience. New revenues will enable UC Berkeley's departments, schools and colleges to fund their priorities and enable them to continue breaking new ground in teaching and research.
Fostering imagination and innovation
The UC Berkeley community is dynamic, unique, and boundary-breaking. The status quo is questioned; new challenges are embraced. The New Revenue Initiative supports the development of new ideas that take advantage of our unique resources; these may include campus facilities and locations, equipment and technology, expertise and capabilities. In fostering innovation, we seek many ideas, because - to paraphrase Linus Pauling - generating a multitude of ideas is the best way to surface a few great ones. We encourage experimentation and seek to learn from our experiments. We accept that risk is a part of any new venture and the New Revenue Initiative also seeks to mitigate risk through close attention to market analysis, project management and financial management in projects that we support.
Ensuring that we are accountable to each other
To ensure transparency and accountability, the New Revenue Initiative is committed to broad and open communication about the Revenue Generation initiative. Recognizing the importance of sponsorship in ensuring accountability and successful outcomes, projects receiving start-up funding through the OE Program Office must have a sponsor who shares in the start-up risks by contributing directly, in-kind, or both, toward the cost of the project.
Excelling by building new ideas, together
This initiative brings together the collective ingenuity and knowledge of UC Berkeley's faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors and other supporters across disciplines in order to produce new ideas. To evaluate and strengthen ideas, the New Revenue Initiative connects proposers with each other, with campus functional experts as well as our network of volunteer alumni business advisors. We convene this active community in person and on-line, bringing together people with ideas and those who can help build them.