Dear Alums and Friends,

This note brings all warm seasonal greetings. The crushing news, as many of you have heard, is the death on October 26 of our cherished colleague and dean, Jon Gjerde. Jon died without warning, and we pray without pain, of a heart attack at the age of fifty-five. The loss is blindingly personal for so many of us, since Jon’s genius for friendship—always seasoned by quiet hilarity and a modesty that put others first—spread everywhere.

Jon would have rejoiced over the election, a bit of balm as we mourn and a fitting inspiration for our next gathering of friends, alumni, and faculty, which is scheduled for Wednesday, February 11 between 7:00 and 9:00 in Alumni House. Together with sweets, savories, drinks, and camaraderie, we shall have a panel discussion on “Barack Obama and the Making of American History,” with Mark Brilliant, Robin Einhorn, Waldo Martin, and others. We plan to make such February gatherings annual events, perhaps under the rubric of History Homecoming (Improvements are avidly requested! Perhaps History for Bears? or The Cal History Connection? Help me.)

A few fast notes. Our auditors might be interested in a new spring course, History 2: World Cities, which will cover Rome, Tokyo, Paris, and Delhi. We all rejoice in welcoming two new assistant professors this year: Daniel Sargent (U.S. and World History) and Massimo Mazzotti (History of Science). And we lift a glass to Rebecca McLennan, who has won the Littleton-Griswold Prize in American Law and Society, awarded by the American Historical Association, for her book, The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the Making of the American Penal State, 1776-1941 (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Like all the books by our faculty and graduates, it sounds like just the right holiday gift.

And, speaking of gifts, we send profound thanks for your continuing generosity to the department. As I have said again and again, it makes all the difference. We are putting particular emphasis these days on funding for our graduate program, something urgently important to Jon who, with his wife, established last year the Jon and Ruth Gjerde Graduate Student Endowment. (Contributions, noting the name of the fund, may be made to the UC Berkeley Foundation and sent to the department.)

More broadly, and apart from this specific fund, we are in the process of setting endowment goals that will help enable us to (1) improve graduate fellowship stipends (now $17,000, while those of our peers range from $22,000 to $27,000); and (2) admit more international students (now limited to about two each year because of costs, despite the brilliance of the pool). Additional goals include guaranteed fellowship support for the dissertation write-up year (now awarded selectively) and the slight expansion of graduate enrollment (now limited to 26 entering students because of costs). Initial projections for some combination of these goals put the endowment target at around 25 million. This is a heady figure, but one we must seriously engage to keep our program among the top three in the nation. We have been hugely fortunate in your past support. We are committed to living up to your trust.

We hope to see you on February 11. And, if you are in the halls of Dwinelle on December 9 after 5:00 pm, do share some holiday cheer with us during our departmental holiday party. Music and Santa are on the bill.

All best wishes,
Beth Berry, Chair