Memories of life at UC Berkeley

Sproul Hall houses UC Berkeley’s administration.  Back in pre-computer days, when you wanted to get anything done (i.e., enroll in classes or get forms or whatever), you had to go to Sproul.  The lines at Sproul were always ridiculously long and slow.  Way too often, after I’d stood in line seemingly forever, just as I got to the window, the clerk would announce “We got a bomb threat and the building needs to be evacuated.”  Disconsolate, I’d drag my sorry self out of the building, knowing that I’d have to stand in line all over again (and that I probably wouldn’t get my first choice in classes).

I haven’t thought about those irritating little episodes in my life for a long time, but they suddenly flashed into my brain when I read about a recent rather unsuccessful effort to revive Sproul’s glory days:

Fourteen protesters who forced a lockdown at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall Friday afternoon to demand that Cal enroll more black and Latino students left on their own after three hours.

I so don’t miss Berkeley.