By Nanette Asimov and Will Kane

Robert Birgeneau will step down as chancellor of UC Berkeley in December after eight years navigating the public university through massive budget cuts and raucous student protests, even as he maintained its status as one of the world’s great research institutions.

As if to symbolize Birgeneau’s tenure in microcosm, two things happened Tuesday, the day the lanky, silver-haired chancellor, 69, announced his departure: Hundreds of faculty members demanded that he ask the Alameda County district attorney to drop charges against campus protesters, and the latest World University Rankings listed UC Berkeley among the top 10 best schools on the planet.

“If you’re not comfortable dealing with protest, you shouldn’t be chancellor here at Berkeley,” Birgeneau said Tuesday.

Birgeneau, a physicist, is perhaps more comfortable manipulating quantum magnets and superconductors. He plans to return to a faculty position after retiring.

As chancellor, he has had to deal with protesters — sometimes thousands at a time — who plainly hold him responsible for the fallout of an unprecedented drop in state funding to the University of California.

He laid off workers, reduced hours, canceled benefits. He let police use a heavy hand on protesters and subjected them to lengthy discipline hearings.

In November, the Faculty Senate approved three resolutions condemning his handling of an Occupy Cal protest in which police struck demonstrators. In Asia at the time, Birgeneau sent an email for which he has apologized, characterizing peaceful protesters as “not nonviolent.” Critics have called him detached.

Differing views

But others are grateful that Birgeneau has had his eye on larger needs.

In 2008, he initiated a campaign to raise $3 billion that has so far raised $2.4 billion. And he has brought in far more nonresident students, who pay nearly triple the in-state price: $37,338 vs. $14,460 a year.

“He’s a big-picture kind of guy,” Bob Jacobsen, chairman of the Faculty Senate, said recently. “Some people want him to be more of an uncle — to reach out to them as individuals.”

Jacobsen also called him thoughtful and “very committed to the values of serving everyone.”

Some students are suing Birgeneau over his handling of the Nov. 9 Occupy Cal protest. But others see him as their champion.

He pushed successfully for passage of state laws to let undocumented students receive financial aid, and announced a tuition discount in December for middle-class families who don’t qualify for financial aid. “I think he’s been really good for students,” said Joey Freeman, a vice president with Berkeley’s student government. “He’s used his platform to advocate for reforms that benefit students — particularly disadvantaged students.”

Less diversity

It hasn’t always worked. Since Birgeneau’s arrival in 2004, the number of black undergraduates remains at less than 4 percent. The Latino presence has risen slightly from 11 to 12 percent on a campus of 26,885 undergrads.

Not all protests are about tuition. One remarkable demonstration had students living in trees for two years until 2008 trying to block a new athletic center. That center and a refurbished Memorial Stadium are to open this fall.

During Birgeneau’s tenure, three professors won Nobel prizes.

Hired at $390,000, he now earns $436,800.

In addition to returning to the classroom as a physics professor and researcher, Birgeneau said he will advocate at the national level for the rights of undocumented students and for financial support to UC.

“Although challenges still remain, I am confident that we have put into place a clear pathway for the years ahead and strategies that will support Berkeley’s ongoing excellence and its impact on the world,” Birgeneau wrote in his resignation letter.

Birgeneau is one of four higher education leaders who have announced they will retire this year. He joins the state community college system Chancellor Jack Scott, City College of San Francisco Chancellor Don Griffin and San Francisco State University President Robert Corrigan.

— Nanette Asimov and Will Kane are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Reach them at [email protected] and [email protected]

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