The Big C

Campus Climate & Equity Fee

Passed by student referenda in April 2017 and renewed in April 2025, The Big C (Big Community) Fee Referendum expands staffing (student and professional), programs, and services, including funding for student initiated projects, offered through the Centers for Educational Justice & Community Engagement (EJCE) that serve the UC Berkeley community.

EJCE is a collaborative of offices and centers that advocate for, build capacity with and dialogue among and across diverse communities. Our community engagement approach enriches the academic success of students while fostering a campus climate that honors the dignity of all people. Each partner space is steeped in rich and vibrant legacies and established community-centered praxes of educational justice: leadership development, access, activism, academic excellence and social justice. Our work reflects interconnected identities and experiences through our collective and individual commitments to support and advance future global leaders while upholding Berkeley’s mission. 

EJCE serves all students by fostering communities and providing support and educational services to the campus as a whole. EJCE is comprised of: African American Student Development (AASD) + Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center | Asian Pacific American Student Development (APASD) + HFA C-10 Community Center | Chicanx Latinx Student Development (CLSD) + Latinx Student Resource Center | Gender Equity Resource Center (GenEq) | Multicultural Community Center (MCC) | Native American Student Development (NASD) + Native Community Center | and South Asian, Southwest Asian, and North African Student Development (SSWANA) + HFA C-10 Community Center.

The Campus Climate & Equity Fee provides funding for EJCE to: 

• Expand and retain student employment opportunities throughout EJCE. Student employees play a critical role in meeting the needs of students and delivering programs/services that EJCE offers. EJCE offices and centers employ both undergraduate and graduate students. Because the offices are student centered, maintaining the compensated involvement of students to support functionality of the EJCE cluster and to research and develop student support strategies and initiatives are essential to the further development and engagement for communities at UC Berkeley. These student employment opportunities are open to all students at UC Berkeley

• Continue to address the diverse and growing needs of our graduate and professional student populations through dedicated internships, targeted programming, and inclusive advising

• Address the needs of student communities and initiatives that have been established in the time since the original referendum was passed and require growing resources to meet growing student needs, such as the Pacific Islander Initiative and South, Southwest Asian, and North African (SSWANA) Initiative

• Provide funding for student initiated and student centered projects related to campus climate and community engagement

• Address the needs of our undergraduate and graduate student LGBTQ+ community; this community is a significant and growing segment of the campus population whose experiences and needs are cross cultural, complex and often misunderstood

• Support professional staffing across EJCE to support and advise the large populations of underserved UC Berkeley campus communities. The fee supports holistic student support and development by funding several of the positions that are critical to those services and resources.

• Provide educational workshops available for students, faculty and staff around campus climate issues.

Breakdown of the Fee 

The fee is assessed for all undergraduate and graduate students, including students in self-supporting graduate degree programs, at the rate of $63.00 per Fall and Spring semester in the 2025-2026 academic year.  One-third (33.33%) of the fee is returned to financial aid to help offset the cost of this fee for students who are eligible for financial aid. These funds will be allocated as detailed in the table below.

Breakdown of the $63.00  per semester fee

Oversight of the Fee 

Oversight of the fee is conducted with feedback from three entities: 

• EJCE Student Advisory Committee with leaders from ASUC and each of the program’s student associations; 
• EJCE staff, faculty, and alumni Advisory Board; and 
• Consultation and regular reporting to CSF (Committee on Student Fees). 

The fee may be increased, subject to review by the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Student Services and Fees and the Chancellor’s approval, up to but not exceeding 3% per year to adjust for annual inflation according to the February SF Bay Area Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers.

Contact

Email the Big C Advisory Committee Co-Chairs at thebigc@berkeley.edu.