New $300 Million Berkeley Dorm Puts Spotlight on Private Donor Family and Its Contested Giving

A 14-story, $300 million residence hall opens this week at UC Berkeley, and the family that paid for it is facing renewed questions about its politics and business dealings. The Helen Diller Anchor House will welcome 772 transfer students for the fall semester, offering amenities far beyond what most college students expect.

The Helen Diller Family Foundation covered the entire cost, with no money from the university. It is the largest gift in Berkeley's 156-year history. Over the past 21 years, the foundation has given $1.5 billion to the University of California, making it the system's biggest donor. The foundation is led by Jaclyn "Jackie" Safier, a famously private figure who is also CEO of Prometheus Real Estate Group.

The building features suites with custom furniture, large windows, a living room, a kitchen and a built-in washer and dryer. Residents get a private fitness center, a terrace with swinging chairs overlooking campus, and a courtyard flanked by two 120-foot living garden walls. One room is lined with wood paneling from an ancient sequoia. Safier personally reviewed many finishes, and her gift agreement even sets out how staff should answer phones and emails. It is Cal's first privately funded student housing in 79 years.

Revenue from the dorm, about $4.5 million a year, will fund roughly 400 two-year scholarships for low-income students, according to the university. Construction began during the pandemic after the university razed a 112-year-old rent-controlled building and evicted 12 people. The project was completed in a year and a half.

Critics have focused on the family's support for right-wing Israeli causes. In 2016, when Safier's late father, Sanford Diller, directed the foundation, it gave $100,000 to the Central Fund for Israel with instructions to pass the money to Canary Mission, a group that publishes profiles of students and professors it accuses of promoting hatred. The foundation also sent $125,000 through the fund to Regavim and Reservists on Duty, and gave to groups including Project Veritas and the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Protests this spring over the war in Gaza brought the issue to campuses. Demonstrators at UC Santa Cruz urged the school to cut ties with the foundation, and Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine criticized a $10 million gift made in 2021 to Cal's Institute of Jewish Law and Israel Studies. Jess Ghannam, a UCSF clinical professor, said the foundation has done "some awesome things" but argued that a public institution should be more transparent about such funding.

Safier gave a 50-minute Zoom interview to The Standard after three years of requests. Her representatives declined to let her comment on the controversial grants. Phyllis Cook, a foundation officer, said the gifts were a small fraction of the billions given to arts, science, public health and education. In a 2019 interview with Inside Philanthropy, Safier said the grants were "motivated by concern about anti-Semitism" but that the tactics of Canary Mission and Regavim "are not OK."

Prometheus, the Bay Area's largest private apartment owner, has also drawn criticism for opposing rent control. Campaign filings show it contributed $3 million since 2018 to defeat two statewide expansion measures, and it donated against a Mountain View measure in 2016. Safier, a registered independent, gave to Republican groups in 2016 and has also donated to Democrats including Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.

Former chancellor Carol T. Christ called Anchor House "the best student housing I've ever seen." For the students moving in this week, the gift is tangible, even as questions about its source persist.