Harvey Helfand

Our campus has seen the construction of some of California’s most iconic and exemplary buildings — many of which still stand today.

From that one iron-oxide-green drinking fountain we see after stumbling out of the wrong end of Dwinelle Hall to the stairs we climb every day when hurrying to class in VLSB to our most recognizable campus(nile) installations, UC Berkeley’s alumni classes have contributed to many aspects that, be they in obscurity, notoriety or majesty, make their mark upon the campus.

In a day and age that seems to hold the STEM fields in ever-growing esteem while valuing the humanities less and less, the walls and halls of this building stand out, having witnessed and been part of key moments in the campus’s history. Wheeler Hall and the wild journey it sent me on serve as physical reminders of why I do what I do as an English major.

Monday marked the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s signing of what is now known as the Morrill Land-Grant Act, a law that provided crucial funding to establish the University of California in Berkeley.