Dear Berkeley Class of 2028,
It is my honor to welcome you to Berkeley College! I very much look forward to meeting you in August as you arrive on the campus you will soon call home. I am Dean Cruvinel Santiago, but you can also call me Dean Santiago for short. As your dean, I am Berkeley’s chief academic advisor, and I will work with you over the next several years to make sure you succeed in your academic journey. In fact, Berkeley currently holds both the Gimbel Cup and Sheffield Cup for overall and STEM GPAs across all fourteen residential colleges! Together, we will make sure that your stellar class can continue Berkeley’s successful streak.
As you prepare to come to college, you might be wondering what your life will look like, if you’ll get along with your suitemates, what classes to take, what extracurriculars to join, and have many other questions. That is completely normal, but fear not! As an experimental physicist, I often found that trying new things in the lab was helpful in figuring out what to do next, a esson I regularly apply to life in general. As such, I will be right there with you as you forge your own path at Yale through trial and error. When you arrive on campus, I will have one-on-one meetings with each of you to chat about your schedule and any questions you might have. From then on, my office will always be open to those of you in need of academic or life advice.
One of the many things that makes your first-year experience at Yale unique is that you will also have a host of other official and unofficial mentors to help your transition. Over the summer you will hear from your First-Year Counselors, also referred to as FroCos (https://berkeley.yalecollege.yale.edu/class-2028/2024-2025-berkeley-first-year-counselors). They are Berkeley seniors who will live with you in Lanman Wright Hall (LW, or “L-Dub”) on Old Campus, and who have experience in a breadth of majors and extracurricular activities. They are dedicated to ease your transition to campus and you should count on them as resources as you start your life at Yale. Some of you will also be assigned a Peer Liaison (PL) from one of Yale’s many centers and cultural houses. They are also trained to help you navigate the tribulations of college life and are particularly good resources to students facing challenges that are identity specific. Additionally, every first year is assigned an academic adviser. You will also meet the Senior Administrative Assistant to the Dean, whom we are hiring this month to begin their role in August. Theirs will be the first face you will see when you come into the Berkeley Dean’s Office, and they will be able to help you with routine academic questions and provide encouragement in times of need. During the summer, be sure to reach out to your FroCo with any and all burning questions you may have. I also highly recommend that you look at the Berkeley FAQ sheet (https://berkeley.yalecollege.yale.edu/class-2028/berkeley-faq).
On a personal note, as a former Yale student, I was once in your shoes moving my own bags into L-Dub as I started my own college life across the same courtyard as where you will live. While I remember my long-gone bright college years fondly, I also recall how difficult the transition you are about to undergo can be. Each of you will face unique challenges over the years to come. When that happens, even if you don’t know where to start, it will be my privilege to help you brainstorm solutions, connect you to resources and lend a listening ear.
Like Head of College David Evans, I also live in Berkeley. When you see me around, come say hi! You will often find me in the Berkeley dining hall or in Berkeley’s South Court with my dog, Fubá (pronounced foo-BAH). He is a very friendly English cream golden retriever named after “corn meal” in my native Portuguese. If you run into him in his free time, he will most likely ask you for pets, belly rubs or playtime. I also teach Yale College courses, and it will be my pleasure to find some of you in the classroom in the future.
As a scientist, I found my own Yale liberal arts education extremely valuable not only as an academic, as I studied the cosmos or connected my physics expertise to the policy issues facing society, but also as a citizen and human being. I hope you will also use your time at Yale to make personal connections with those around you who come from a variety of backgrounds and have a diverse set of interests, which will hopefully be facilitated by Yale’s residential college system. Head of College Evans and I can’t wait to meet you in person and to see where the exploration of your various academic and personal pursuits will take you! In the meantime, congratulations on what you have accomplished so far and welcome to Berkeley College!
Warmly,
Bárbara Cruvinel Santiago, Ph.D.
John B. Madden Dean of Berkeley College