Allison
McCormack
Film R1B
Emily
Carpenter
5/15/13
WWBD. What Would Berkeley Do? : An
Analysis of Inequality in Fiat Lux
The philosopher George Berkeley once opined, “Where men
shall not impose for truth and sense/ the pedantry of courts and schools:/ there
shall be sung another golden age/ the rise of empire and of arts”. It is
because of George Berkeley’s intuition of a “golden age” and a “rise of empire
and of arts” that the founders of the University of California named the campus
nestled in the hills of Oakland, Berkeley. Following suit, the campus indeed
became an empire of academia and the forerunner for “the golden age” of
political activism. As a result, President of the University of California,
Berkeley Clark Kerr requested Ansel Adams to create a commemorative,
photographic book that would celebrate the university and it’s achievements in
the hopes of broadcasting the school’s importance for years to come. In Adam’s Fiat Lux, all campuses of the University
of California are represented for varying credits of honor specifically
highlighting the original University of California. The Latin title of the
book, Fiat Lux, refers to the universities’
seal that quotes “Let There Be Light” and Adam and Newhall’s photographs
fittingly ‘shine a light’ on the hidden past of UC Berkeley’s racial, class and
gender inequality. This essay will analyze the ways in which Fiat Lux proves the existence of racial,
class and gender inequalities, manifest in Adam and Newhall’s photographs of
the University of California, Berkeley, despite its globally recognized reputation
as an accepting and diversified community of academics.
The first photograph in Fiat
Lux is a black and white image of UC Berkeley’s Hearst Greek Theatre on
Charter Day in 1964. The large crowd of indiscernible faces and bodies creates
a sort of metaphorical entity, one giant body of students dedicated to
discovering knowledge. Above the image the text “DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO WILL
MAKE THE FUTURE” scrawls across an entire page. Similarly,
Adams insists, “the greatness of Berkeley is that of the young genius who has
begun to discover and apply his powers” (Adams). Trained in the subject of
semiotics, an astute reader would acknowledge the imperceptible faces of the
crowd not as representative of the many possible students who have equal
opportunity to shape the future, but rather as representative of an unclear
future with students whose success is ambiguous as well. More importantly, the
lack of detail in the faces and bodies of the students also hints to the
individual student’s insignificance in the future as opposed to the
significance of the student body as a whole. Many of the details lacking
include race, class and gender. Therefore, the lack of detail outlining race,
class and gender suggest that the student’s insignificance transcends the
realms of simple individual power of the student to make a difference but also
suggests that the racial, socioeconomic and gender of each student is unimportant
to the university as well. 
Sequentially,
Adams and Newhall present an image of students at the corner of Sproul Plaza
and Telegraph Avenue on campus. Unlike the previous image, this photograph
allows a reader to easily identify the race and gender of each student. Ansel
Adams supports this photograph when he agrees; “Perhaps its most creative act
was its resolution, in 1870, that ‘Young Ladies be admitted into the University
on equal terms, in every respect, with young men’” (Adams). Berkeley graciously
supported and accepted the equality of women in the University, however, with a
sizable knowledge of semiotics the image proves more than what it appears at
first glance. For instance, women and men are intermingling thus intimating the
equality between the two sexes, however this scene occurs outside of the
classroom. Furthermore, Adams and Newhall placed this photograph, the first
image showing easily distinguishable men and women, at the beginning of Fiat Lux, which hints at the continued
inequality of women in the academic world because the first image of equality
was not taken inside of a classroom. In a quote above the picture Warren
believes that “’after going through much travail they will find answers to some
problems that we have been unwilling to face’” (Warren). Further supporting
this claim, Warren cleverly highlights the same issue that readers today are
encountering: the issue of putting extraordinary effort to face the gender
inequalities of UC Berkeley’s past that students and faculty have been so
previously unwilling to accept. Ergo, the photograph provides a false facade of
gender equality amongst the students of Berkeley. 
After
confronting an image of women represented as equal beings outside of the
academic world, readers then come across a photograph of Adlai Stevenson
approaching the podium of what appears to be a crowded Hearst Greek Theatre.
The majority of the photographed subjects adorn various academic clothing such
as robes, graduation hats, medals, and honors draped around their necks. Not
only are those photographed people of obvious worth to the academic world, but
also the majority of the subjects are male. If any women appear within the
crowd, they dot the crowd without any outward academic indicators as opposed to
the men and the females are exponentially outnumbered at such an important
event in UC Berkeley’s history. As a result, this photograph proves the idea of
gender inequality established in the previous photograph. Additionally, Adams admits
“the faculty at Berkeley is one of the most eminent in the world. It includes ten
living Nobel Laureates: Melvin Calvin, Owen Chamberlin … and Charles H. Townes”
(Adams). Despite the compliment given to the University, the list of notable
academics given by Adams solely mentions males as Nobel Laureates further
highlighting women’s assumed incompetence in academia. Thus, the image of Adlai
Stevenson and his mainly male audience, provided by Adams and Newhall, confirms
the gender inequality amongst the educational leaders at the university.
Adams
and Newhall boldly include another photograph of a co-ed crowd in the Hearst
Greek Theatre giving a standing ovation for the actors of the play “Elektra”. At
the center of the image, a woman flashes an enthusiastic smile while clapping
for a play that she clearly enjoyed. Most noticeably, this photograph shows yet
another woman who is not inside of a classroom with her fellow male students.
Additionally, almost identical to the previous image of Adlai Stevenson, this
photograph shows another few women surrounded by a male crowd. However, this
marks the primary image that allows for simple identification of varying races
among the students attending Berkeley. The caption accompanying the image
advances the racial disconnect seen throughout Fiat Lux thus far. President Clark Kerr discloses, “‘in the arts,
the universities have been more hospitable to the historian and the critic than
the creator’” (Kerr). Contextually, the photographed subjects are in the Hearst
Greek Theatre, which was a “gift of William Randolph Hearst in 1903, was
designed by John Galen Howard” (Adams). Therefore, the creator being a male
(Howard) and the historian and critics being the woman and the racially ethnic
audience, Kerr suggests that the arts became the first haven for those
different from the white, educated males that dominated the university. This
classification into separate life paths and educational choices made by those
other than white, educated males segregates the unique population of students
and establishes the racial and gender inequalities that many within and outside
of UC Berkeley fail to recognize.
Similarly, a photograph of another
older, white, educated male in a position of power appears next. specifically the photograph captures Lawrence in the “Donner Laboratory of Medical
Physics and Biophysics” (Adams). Astonishingly, the man sits behind a
multiple-port in vivo counter, and lying on the table in front of him is
nothing other than a woman. In this instance, the image dehumanizes the woman
to a “test subject” in the educational realm. Another caption also affirms the
high socioeconomic class of Lawrence. He admires “the young men working around
the cyclotron bombarding new targets … I [Lawrence] was soon infected with the
excitement of the early experiments and spent the remainder of the summer
here’” (Lawrence). He admits that he was just a visitor at the university until
he witnessed the brilliant young men and wished to be a part of the
research. Readers can reasonably conclude that Lawrence was of a higher
economic class because of his freedom to choose to stay as a visitor at the
University of California, Berkeley for an entire summer without work. In
addition, Lawrence wears a suit while observing his “test subject” rather than
hospital scrubs. Nowhere within the photograph does Lawrence don a lab coat or
hospital scrubs, indicators of scientific hard work or hands on activity.
Therefore, this white, educated, financially stable male represents male
superiority over women as a whole as well as to the students learning from him
at the university. 
The
following shows a “graduate student of the Sounding Rocket Group” as he “adjusts
the ‘payload’ instrumentation which fits into the nose cone of a high- altitude
rocket” (Adams). The photograph details a young male focused on his work in a
laboratory or classroom setting. Although Adams and Newhall choose to include a
student within UC Berkeley’s commemorative book, the male’s name is not identified,
thus establishing the insignificance of his work. Furthermore, Adams and
Newhall fail to include an image of a select racially unique few from the
student body; instead the only representation of “the Sounding Rocket Group”
and inherently Berkeley’s student body is an image of an apparently Caucasian,
nameless male. The reason for such a disparaging difference between the small
female and ethnically diverse student community and the large population of
white male students can be traced back to Berkeley’s infant years. For example,
Adams describes how “He (Wheeler) sought out the best men to be had and brought
them to Berkeley” (Adams). Moreover, Wheeler hired only men to continue the
university’s academic prestige and although he succeeded in doing so, he can be
blamed for the bigotry in Berkeley’s history. Due to Wheeler’s so called
success; a building was named in his honor and has become one of the most
lectured halls on campus. Wheeler Hall, a coveted learning environment on UC
Berkeley’s campus historically represents the beginning of the gender gap
persistent throughout Berkeley’s academic past. In the hopes of celebrating
acceptance and academic prestige, the University of California, Berkeley unconsciously
educates its students to be accepting and to rid of prejudice in a building
that gratifies discrimination.
Lastly,
an image of a women and a young child playing and laughing in a park provide
the last photographic glimpse into UC Berkeley’s past. The caption states,
“Berkeley Student With Her Mexican Tutee in Golden Gate Park” (Adams). At the
first time any indicator of race appears within the book, the young girl is
described using racial identification in order to categorize her at a
disadvantage. Moreover, the sole time Adams mentions race suggests that the
girl, because of her ethnic identity, necessitates tutoring from an elder
Berkeley student. This tutor happens to be a female, further emphasizes the
absence of women in a classroom and their role as domestic beings. Without any
indication of a woman as an academic at University of California, Berkeley,
this picture emphasizes the role of a female to take care of children. Adam’s
text that accompanies this image refers to the inferior disposition of women as
whole. The nameless tutors and tutees, as described by Adams, are given a
service because “The University not only seeks them, but helps them enter the
University and stay there” (Adams). The University also “Watch[es] for the
brilliant but disadvantaged young – a Negro girl with an I.Q. of 140, who
writes plays for her own delight and is a natural director “ (Adams). Adam’s
subliminal but offensive syntax insinuates the superiority of UC Berkeley as
opposed to women and the “disadvantaged”. And, as discovered previously, the
university has a dominant population of white, high-class males who,
considering Adam’s apparent bias, represent UC Berkeley and thus function as a
superior entity to women and other students.
While skimming the photographs of the
several other University of California campuses, astute readers recognize
multiple images of women and racially unique individuals as equals in the
classroom and overall educational field as their peers. So why is it that “Berkeley,
in the opinion of the American Council of Education, is ‘the best-balanced,
distinguished university in the country’” (Adams)? UC Berkeley entirely
satisfies the compliment from the American Council of Education in current day.
The University is recognized as a politically active campus that advocates for
the equality of others and for the eradication of several injustices in the
world. But how has the most perceivably prejudiced University of California
surpassed many others in modern day? Berkeley has many white, elitist skeletons
in the closet, but this university has overcome its questionable past. Adam’s
admits an important detail about Berkeley, that “Freedom of thought and
expression are essential to the University’s purpose, the pursuit of truth”
(Adams). In the same way that the University of California, Berkeley has
advanced more quickly than other universities with equivalent prestige, the
campus encourages its students to question every bit of information learned. In
altering the popular quote “What would Jesus Do?”, I believe that when asked a
similar question, What Would Berkeley do?, in current times, a proud student
could answer: Berkeley would reveal its shaming skeletons, Berkeley would
consider ways to surpass it’s shaky reputation in the past and Berkeley would
surely gratify it’s predecessor George Berkeley as the forerunner in several
inequality issues in the world. As an internationally recognized university,
Berkeley encourages not only its students to challenge common theories and
ideas but also other universities who look up to the prestigious, and now
inclusive, educational paradise and thus “Westward the course of empire takes
its way” (Berkeley).
WORKS CITED
Adams, Ansel, and Nancy
Newhall. "Fiat Lux: The University of California [Hardcover]." Fiat
Lux: The University of California: Ansel Adams, Nancy
Hilbert, David, and John
Perry. "Berkeley's Life and Works." Tigger UIC. Arete Press,
n.d. Web. 2013.
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