Timeline: Forty Years of Democratic Education at Cal 1964: Free Speech Movement erupts in the Fall following the chancellor’s and vice-chancellor’s rescinding of the Sather Gate Tradition of political advocacy on city property adjacent to the university. 1965: The “experimental program,” founded by Philosophy Professor Joseph Tussman. Undergraduates and faculty engage in intensive reading and discussion of texts in an ungraded environment. 1966: Special Select Committee on Education final report issued. The SSCE was chaired by English Professor Charles Muscatine, and a draft version of the report suggested a “General Studies Council” be established which could “receive and implement student proposals for ad hoc courses on subjects of current serious interest.” The final version of the report toned down its more controversial recommendations but did propose the creation of the Board of Educational Development. 1966-67: Board of Educational Development (BED) established by the Academic Senate based on Muscatine (SSCE) report recommendation. Its charge: to “stimulate and promote experimentation and innovation in all sectors of the Berkeley campus,” and to initiate and approve of experimental courses “for which neither departmental or college support is appropriate or feasible.” 1967: Center for Participation Education (CPE) founded, an ASUC-sponsored student group whose primary activities included developing courses and helping other students to do so. Rick Brown, a founder, had just left San Francisco State University, where he had been involved in an evaluation of the Experimental College there. 1967-68: In careful collaboration with BED, CPE helps establish a number of student-initiated courses. 1968: Student-initiated class, entitled Social Analysis 139X: Dehumanization and Regeneration of the American Social Order, guest-taught by Eldridge Cleaver, Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party, ignites a controversy which eventually leads to a tightening of restrictions on student-initiated classes. 1969: BED’s authority to authorize courses rescinded by the Academic Senate, which recommends the creation of the Division of Experimental Courses (DEC) whose course approval procedure would more closely follow the existing Senate rules. 1970: No faculty named to replace the outgoing BED chair; no founding chair named to the DEC; both entities cease functioning soon thereafter; with no body granting course credit, CPE no longer can offer courses for credit. 1980: Conservation and Resource Studies course, Education for Democratic Action, offered by Education Professor John Hurst and a group of CRS students. 1981: Chautauqua – A Center for Democratic Education, a student group, founded; published a magazine and catalog describing several student- initiated classes it was offering. 1985: student group named shortened to DeCal, or Democratic Education at Cal; primary function narrowed to the facilitation of the offering of student-initiated courses. 1985-1995: number of courses steadily grows from ten to more than forty per semester; DeCal continues to publish a printed listing of student- initiated courses. 1997: student-initiated course listings move to web; in the next five years the number of courses offered jumps from fifty to more than a hundred per semester. 2002: controversy surrounding Daily Cal article on Male sexuality course sparks formation of Special Studies Task Force; findings ultimately support the integrity of student-initiated courses but recommend the strengthening of faculty and staff support of them, including the creation of an office which would provide pedagogical training and resources; following the issuance of the Task Force report, Undergraduate Course Facilitator Training & Resources established at the Student Learning Center. An analysis and assessment of the controversy can be found in The Possibility of Abuses section in DeCal Retrospective. 2003: Special Studies Working Group continues the work of the Task Force and in January issues a report recommending, among other things, the establishment of student, faculty, and department chair checklists to describe procedures and recommendations; an informational web site; a Course Proposal Form clarifying faculty mentorship and oversight, and strengthened supervision, training, support, and acknowledgement of faculty and students involved in these courses. 2003: late-summer implementation of Academic Senate’s Course Proposal Form procedure coincides with outgoing ASUC Senate’s cut in funding to DeCal; budget cut spurs revitalization of volunteered-based DeCal student leadership, who formed the DeCal Board, bringing about a dramatic expansion of DeCal support and advocacy. 2004: With the work of the DeCal Board, ASUC funding returned. Today DeCal offers 120 classes with over 250 course facilitators and 4,000 students enrolled in a student-initiated courses. 2005: Expansion of DeCal program to other universities begins, encouraging and supporting student initiated courses at other UC’s as well as the University of Pennsylvania, Oberlin and Stanford. In the Spring of 2005 , DeCal will celebrate its 25 th anniversary. Information gathered by Polly Pagenhart. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources: Reuben, Julie A. “The Limits of Freedom: Student activists and Educational Reform at Berkeley in the 1960s.” Printed in The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s. Robert Cohen and Reginald E. Zelnik, eds. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2002. Hurst, John. “Popular Education.” Printed in Education and Social Change, Spring 1995, Vol. 9, No. 1. Final Report of the Special Studies Working Group. Available at http://education.berkeley.edu/specialstudies/-Special_Studies_Report.pdf. --

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