HOUSE WELCOMES CHANCELLOR BERDAHL

uring his first meeting of the Board of Directors of International House, it was apparent that Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl had already developed a special affection for the House. "Coming here made me wish that I was a college student again so that I could live here too!"

" 'm delighted to be part of this very special place," remarked Berdahl. As the campus's eighth chancellor, he also serves as President of the Board of Directors of I-House. "In the past few months, I've met nearly 4,000 alumni and the association with I-House was evident in many of those meetings."

erdahl is nationally respected for his strong support of diversity and academic excellence. He noted that International House was a center of diversity long before diversity became an ̉inÓ word.

n a message to the campus community, Berdahl stated, "Some years ago, visionary Clark Kerr said the great experiment in higher education would be whether diversity would be achieved at the expense of excellence. At Berkeley, the evidence is overwhelming that diversity does not diminish excellence, but in fact, enhances it. It is one of our greatest accomplishments and is recognized as such throughout the world."

historian of 19th-century Prussian history, Berdahl has had the experience of being an international student himself. He was a Fulbright Research Fellow in Germany in 1975-'76 after which he spent many summers in Gottingen doing research at the Max Planck Institute for History.

efore becoming Chancellor in July, 1997, Dr. Berdahl was president of the University of Texas at Austin. A native of Sioux Falls, S.D., Berdahl has a bachelor's degree from Augustana College, a master's degree from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

hancellor Berdahl succeeded Chang Lin-Tien, who returned to teaching in the UC Berkeley College of Engineering.

hancellor Robert Berdahl and Chancellor Emeritus Chang-Lin Tien will participate in the Asia Symposium in Hong Kong, Technology: Gateway to Global Leadership.