Computer Science Undergraduate Association
The Computer Science Association (UC Berkeley CSUA, or CSUA) is an ASUC funded group at University of California, Berkeley, first founded in 1972. The CSUA's constitution reads:
The CSUA is an all-volunteer, student-run, student-initiated service group established to support the computer science body of the University of California, Berkeley. The CSUA Office is located in 311 Soda Hall in front of the 3rd floor entrance to Soda Hall, at the corner of Hearst & LeRoy. It also maintains a study lounge at 341 Soda Hall. The CSUA provides computing resources, support, and community to the Berkeley campus community, hosting tech talks, hackathons, info sessions, CS workshops, LAN parties, and the biannual Startup Fair.
History
The CSUA was first ASUC sponsored in the 1972–1973 academic year.
The CSUA shares a great deal of history with the EXperimental Computing Facility (XCF).
The CSUA was instrumental for the creation of Cowsay. In the words of author Tony Monroe,
The CSUA used to be located in Evans Hall, before moving into Soda Hall shortly after Soda's construction. It occupied 343 Soda, then moved to 311 Soda.
The CSUA's main RAID failed sometime before Fall of 2016, causing the loss of decades of historical user data.
Organizational structure
As of 2020, the CSUA consists of three groups, in order of ascending responsibilities: members, officers, and members of the Politburo.
The CSUA is led by a seven-member "Politburo," which has executive power over the organization. The positions are as follows:
The CSUA has a base of officers who have access to the office and serve the community as part of their duties. Regular officers have less responsibilities than the Politburo officers, and are elected into the organization as officers by a unanimous vote of the Politburo.
CSUA members gain membership by creating a CSUA account. This account grants access to CSUA's computing resources. Members also are able to vote at General Meeting #3.
Notable alumni
- Brian Behlendorf
- Jonathan Blow
- Chris Demetriou, co-founder NetBSD
- Adam Glass, co-founder NetBSD
- Gene Kan
- Tony Monroe, author of Cowsay
- Sameer Parekh
Services
- Webhosting
- Linux shell access
- Computer lab
- Hackathons
- Info Sessions
- CS Workshops
- LAN parties
- Email forwarding