College Commitments Empowering All

Rausser College of Natural Resources’ "service through science" approach brings together diverse world-class faculty, researchers, students, and partners to collaborate on innovative solutions for the benefit of society and the environment. Solutions that work for everyone—both today, and in the long term.

The more diverse we are, the better we fulfill our public service mandate.

At the heart of our mission to see the bigger picture is a commitment to fostering equity and ensuring that our community is welcoming and inclusive for all. As we work to define, dismantle, and mitigate systemic inequities, we plan to enhance current Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice (DEIBJ) activities and initiate new programs to nurture a climate of inclusive excellence across all of our operations.

With these goals in mind, our College is proud to present the following funding opportunities. They strengthen our work by reinforcing a culture that foregrounds our capacity to provide institutional impact, mobility, and belonging. We welcome your questions and your partnership. 

Your support can empower faculty focused on DEIBJ scholarship, enhance professional development opportunities for staff, and fund summer internship grants to advance the career prospects of low-income students by ensuring their time at Berkeley is transformative.

Faculty Cluster Hires

Through the Climate Equity and Environmental Justice and the Native American and Indigenous Peoples cluster hire initiatives, UC Berkeley is working to bring faculty and students together to address real-world problems where integrated thinking is needed most. Multi-unit and -departmental by design, each cluster will create a culture of shared governance, values, and operations that integrate our DEIBJ priorities into our core research and teaching mission of developing sound science in service to the public good. The clusters will develop a community of shared practice through seminars, symposia, team-building meetings and retreats, co-creation of inclusive curricula, and special events with experts and practitioners suggested by the newly recruited faculty.

 

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Furthering Faculty Impact

We are committed to recruiting faculty who have a rich array of personal experiences, values, and worldviews stemming from differences of culture and circumstances. In addition to supporting the clusters and other multi-pronged centers of excellence—including the Berkeley Food Institute or the Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity—your funding may support:

  • An Endowed chair in DEIBJ, STEM chairs
  • Curriculum development
  • Training
  • Workshops, seminar series
  • Research seed funds

To learn more about how you can make a gift to support these efforts, contact Linda Rafferty, Director of Annual Fund and Alumni Engagement, at lrafferty@berkeley.edu.

Strengthening Student Opportunities

Rausser College has made experiential and hands-on learning a top priority, with a renewed focus on recruiting and mentoring students who have been historically underserved or felt excluded from the conversation. As we continue to diversify our demographics and offer quality courses, resources, and services for all, we recognize that our students—among them Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as well as first-generation and transfer students—are in need of additional support.

We’re here for them.


Visit our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging page for more on Rausser College efforts to advance sustainability with justice in our research, teaching, and service.