On the western side of campus stands California Hall, the current campus home of UC Berkeley chancellors. Strangely, only one of the double doors leading into the building has a handle. The image of a bad guy being chased by police, running through a set of doors, closing them behind him, and placing a crowbar in the handles to hinder the pursuit, was too much for UCB’s first President, Benjamin Ide Wheeler.

Explaining why there is only one handle, student tour guide and junior Nikki Lincoln said, “The president was afraid that during student protests, students could put a crowbar in the double handles and lock him in.”

Folklore and much history surround the campus, the oldest in the UC system.

The Free Speech Movement of the 1960’s started on Berkeley’s campus. Chancellor Edward W. Strong prohibited students from participating in any kind of political advertising. On Sept. 10, 1964, “One student handed another student a single flyer, was arrested, and began the movement,” Lincoln said.

UCB students wanted to have the ability to freely express themselves without being punished by the university.

The Free Speech Movement led to four months of picketing, rallies, vigils, petitions, meetings, sit-ins, and court cases. Acting Chancellor Martin Meyerson’s finally allowed the first legal rally on the steps of Sproul Hall.

The Free Speech Café borders UCB’s undergraduate library, Moffitt. Five million students use the library each year, making it the most popular in the country. Students traveling to the Doe Library, UCB’s main library, from Moffitt can do so through an underground tunnel.

A mainstay of the 180-acre campus is the Campanile, also called Sather Tower. Completed in 1917, the Campanile is 307 feet tall with an observation deck at its top and thousands of fossils within its walls.

Built near the Hayward Fault Line, the Campanile contains 3 times more steel than a skyscraper of the same size. The Hayward Fault is one of three major earthquake faults in Northern California.

The Campanile holds a total of 61 bells, making it the 11th largest instrument of bells, or carillon, in North America.

Every hour, the bells sound. At noon daily, a live musician plays a brief concert on the carillon that can be heard throughout campus.

Campanile Operations Coordinator Gary Klein said, The Campanile is “modeled after the St. Mark’s Plaza bell tower in Venice, Italy.” Klein said the favorite part of his job is “interacting with people, maintaining the operations and safety of visitors, and being a representative of the university.”

Located just off campus, but just as much of UC Berkeley community, is Yogurt Park. Yogurt Park is a yogurt shop that has been around since 1977 and on average serves anywhere from 1000-1200 people per day.

Manager Bill Carey said it has been so popular over the years “because of the product. It’s also iconic and part of the university.”

Carey explains that Yogurt Park is now a scheduled destination of UC Berkeley’s Freshman Orientation.

When asked why Yogurt Park has been able to last over the years, Carey said, “It’s because of the personality of the Cal students who work here.”