General Information
Goal
The Mission of your Bowles Hall Alumni Association is to “restore the Bowles Hall experience” in a restored Bowles Hall”; to breathe life back into a noble dream of a rich residential experience, Education Through Fellowship, for undergraduate students at the University of California Berkeley.
Mission Statement
We, the members of the Bowles Hall Alumni Association, aspire to re-establish the special residential experience for undergraduates of all classes from freshmen through seniors. The key elements of this experience include older residents coaching newcomers, the sense of community of a small group environment in a large research university, dining together on-site, responsible and accountable for self-government, a diversity of perspectives, pride in self and group, and respect for authority, traditions, benefactors and commitments. This environment fostered our transition to responsible adulthood and participative citizenship.
We also believe that pride in one’s home and neighborhood requires a home and neighborhood that is worthy of individual and collective pride. We aspire to change the ravages of more than thirty years of deferred maintenance that Bowles Hall has endured and bring it to the glory of its youth, with 21st Century amenities, in which we will all take pride.
Preserving Bowles Hall
Beginning in the 1980s, the dream of Bowles Hall that was conceived by Mary McNear Bowles in 1926 and defined by Mrs. Bowles, UC President Dr. Robert Gordon Sproul and Dr. George Kelham (renowned University Architect) began to be disassembled by the very institution that it had served so well. Over the last thirty years, returning residency in the Hall was determined by lottery, the Dining Commons was closed, resident self-government (a cornerstone of the designers of the “Bowles Hall experience”—relating to social and judicial affairs) was assumed by the UCB Student Affairs (aka the Housing Office). In the fall of 2005, residency was limited to freshmen only.
In addition one of BHAA’s main goals is to preserve the original positive, constructive and respectful traditions of the Bowles Hall community.