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University of California, Riverside — news, coverage & facts — IJR

History

At the turn of the 20th century, Southern California was a major producer of citrus, the region's primary agricultural export. The industry developed from the country's first navel orange trees, planted in Riverside in 1873. Lobbied by the citrus industry, the UC Regents established the UC Citrus Experiment Station (CES) on February 14, 1907, on 23 acres (9 ha) of land on the east slope of Mount Rubidoux in Riverside. The station conducted experiments in fertilization, irrigation and crop improvement. In 1917, the station was moved to a larger site, 475 acres (192 ha) near Box Springs Mountain.

The 1944 passage of the GI Bill during World War II set in motion a rise in college enrollments that necessitated an expansion of the state university system in California. A local group of citrus growers and civic leaders, including many UC Berkeley alumni, lobbied aggressively for a UC-administered liberal arts college next to the CES. State Senator Nelson S. Dilworth authored Senate Bill 512 (1949) which former Assemblyman Philip L. Boyd and Assemblyman John Babbage (both of Riverside) were instrumental in shepherding through the State Legislature. Governor Earl Warren signed the bill in 1949, allocating $2 million for initial campus construction.

Gordon S. Watkins, dean of the UCLA College of Letters and Science, became the first provost of the new college at Riverside. Initially conceived of as a small college devoted to the liberal arts, he ordered the campus built for a maximum of 1,500 students and recruited many young junior faculty to fill teaching positions. He presided at its opening with 65 faculty and 127 students on February 14, 1954, remarking, "Never have so few been taught by so many."

UCR's enrollment exceeded 1,000 students by the time Clark Kerr became president of the UC system in 1958. Anticipating a "tidal wave" in enrollment growth required by the baby boom generation, Kerr developed the California Master Plan for Higher Education and the regents designated Riverside a general university campus in 1959. UCR's first chancellor, Herman Theodore Spieth, oversaw the beginnings of the school's transition to a full university and its expansion to a capacity of 5,000 students. UCR's second chancellor, Ivan Hinderaker led the campus through the era of the free speech movement and kept student protests peaceful in Riverside. According to a 1998 interview with Hinderaker, the city of Riverside received negative press coverage for smog after the mayor asked Governor Ronald Reagan to declare the South Coast Air Basin a disaster area in 1971; subsequent student enrollment declined by up to 25% through 1979. Hinderaker's development of innovative programs in business administration and biomedical sciences created incentive for enough students to enroll at Riverside to keep the campus open.

In the 1990s, UC experienced a new surge of enrollment applications, now known as "Tidal Wave II". The regents targeted UCR for an annual growth rate of 6.3%, the fastest in the UC system, and anticipated 19,900 students at UCR by 2010. By 1995, African American, American Indian, and Latino student enrollments accounted for 30% of the UCR student body, the highest proportion of any UC campus at the time. The 1997 implementation of Proposition 209—which banned the use of affirmative action by state agencies—reduced the ethnic diversity at the more selective UC campuses but further increased it at UCR.

With UCR scheduled for dramatic population growth, efforts have been made to increase its popular and academic recognition. The students voted for a fee increase to move UCR athletics into NCAA Division I standing in 1998. In the 1990s, proposals were made to establish a law school, a medical school, and a school of public policy at UCR, with the UCR School of Medicine and the School of Public Policy becoming reality in 2012. In June 2006, UCR received its largest gift, 15.5 million from two local couples, in trust towards building its medical school. The regents formally approved UCR's medical school proposal in 2006. Upon its completion in 2013, it was the first new medical school built in California in 40 years.

Campus

UCR's main campus sits at an elevation of 1,100 ft (340 m) to 1,450 ft (440 m) near Box Springs Mountain, 3 miles (5 km) east of downtown Riverside, 3 miles (5 km) south of neighboring Highgrove, CA, and comprises 1,112 acres (450 ha) divided into eastern and western areas by the State Route 60 freeway.

East Campus, occupying approximately 600 acres (243 ha), hosts the core cluster of academic buildings and services. The original buildings that formed the earliest kernel of the campus included the UC Citrus Experiment Station, residential buildings, and barn, all of which are still in use. They were designed by Lester H. Hibbard, in association with H.B. Cody. Built by 1917 at a cost of $165,000, the architecture of the major buildings followed the Mission Revival style suggesting the Spanish colonial heritage of Southern California.

Further major construction largely ceased on the site until the groundbreaking for the College of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) in April 1951. A group of five buildings designed by different architects in a decidedly more Modern style were completed by 1954: the Rivera Library, Webber Hall, Geology Building, Physical Education Building and Watkins Hall. After the Regents declared UCR a "general campus" of the UC system in 1958, many new buildings and additions were laid out over the following decade. Following an east–west axis, new student residence halls and athletic facilities were developed along the southeastern quadrant of the main campus, while academic and research facilities were built along the central campus area closer to the freeway. The Bell Tower, one of only five carillons in California, was built in this period. Designed by A. Quincy Jones, the tower is 161 ft (49 m) tall and contains 48 bells, each weighing from 28 pounds (13 kg) to 5,091 pounds (2,309 kg), covering four chromatic octaves.

After the drop in enrollment and subsequent restructuring of academic programs in the 1970s, little capacity construction was undertaken over the next two decades. However, enrollment growth in the late 1980s justified considerable further campus expansion over the 1990s. Major additions built in the period include: Bourns Hall, completed in 1995; the Humanities & Social Science building, completed in 1996; and the Science Library, completed in 1998. The Pentland and Stonehaven residence halls were completed in 2000, and the Arts building was completed in 2001. Active construction projects include the "Multidisciplinary Research Building," new residence halls located east of A-I and ongoing renovations to Pierce Hall. The first phase of a new Commons was completed in 2007, and phase II is in development. Other ongoing projects include a new CHASS Instructional and Research Center and Students Academic Support Services Building. Since 1999, more than $730 million has been invested in construction projects.

Of the 511 acres (207 ha) of UCR property constituting West Campus, approximately 216 acres (87 ha) along University Avenue have been developed. These include facilities such as University Extension, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Germplasm Repository, International Village (student housing), Human Resources and Highlander Hall. University Village, a mixed use commercial development, features a movie theater, stores, restaurants, office space, and an apartment complex, along with a parking structure and surface parking. Citrus groves and row crops occupy the remaining 295 acres (119 ha) stretching northwest to the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Le Conte Drive. Plans for future expansion include converting a portion of these fields into new UCR infrastructure.

The University of California, Riverside has recently united its three downtown arts presentation venues under the umbrella name of the UCR ARTSblock. The ARTSblock is composed of the UCR/California Museum of Photography, The Sweeney Art Gallery, and the Culver Center of the Arts, a media lab and presentation facility. The three institutions reside side by side in the heart of downtown Riverside's historic pedestrian mall.

Research and economic impact

UCR operated under a $727 million budget in fiscal year 2014–15. The state government provided $214 million, student fees accounted for $224 million and $100 million came from contracts and grants. Private support and other sources accounted for the remaining $189 million. Overall, monies spent at UCR have an economic impact of nearly $1 billion in California. UCR research expenditure in FY 2018 totaled $167.8 million. Total research expenditures at Riverside are significantly concentrated in agricultural science, accounting for 53% of total research expenditures spent by the university in 2002. Top research centers by expenditure, as measured in 2002, include the Agricultural Experiment Station, the Center for Environmental Research and Technology, the Center for Bibliographical Studies, the Air Pollution Research Center, and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.

Throughout UCR's history, researchers have developed more than 40 new citrus varieties and invented new techniques to help the $960 million-a-year California citrus industry fight pests and diseases. In 1927, entomologists at the CES introduced two wasps from Australia as natural enemies of a major citrus pest, the citrophilus mealybug, saving growers in Orange County $1 million in annual losses. This event was pivotal in establishing biological control as a practical means of reducing pest populations. In 1963, plant physiologist Charles Coggins proved that application of gibberellic acid allows fruit to remain on citrus trees for extended periods. The ultimate result of his work, which continued through the 1980s, was the extension of the citrus-growing season in California from four to nine months. In 1980, UC Riverside released the Oroblanco grapefruit, its first patented citrus variety. Since then, the citrus breeding program has released other varieties such as the Melogold grapefruit, the Gold Nugget mandarin (or tangerine), and others that have yet to be given trademark names.

To assist entrepreneurs in developing new products, UCR is a primary partner in the Riverside Regional Technology Park, which includes the City of Riverside and the County of Riverside. It also administers six reserves of the University of California Natural Reserve System. UCR recently announced a partnership with China Agricultural University to launch a new center in Beijing, which will study ways to respond to the country's growing environmental issues. UCR can also boast the birthplace of two name reactions in organic chemistry, the Castro-Stephens coupling and the Midland Alpine Borane Reduction.

Libraries and collections

Total library collections at UCR comprise more than 2 million volumes, 14,017 electronic journals, 23,000 serial subscriptions, and 1.7 million microformats. Two large, four-story libraries house most of the physical collections. The 179,595 ft (54,741 m) Rivera library was constructed in 1954 and named after Tomás Rivera in 1985. It seats a capacity of 956 and houses general humanities and social science collections, as well as special collections, including the world's largest collection of science fiction, horror and fantasy literature, the 110,000-volume Eaton Collection. The Rivera Library also hosts the only U.S. Patent and Trademark Depository based on a UC campus. The 125,752 ft (38,329 m) Raymond L. Orbach Science Library, built in 1998, seats a capacity of 1,360 and houses 533,000 volumes in the physical, natural, agricultural, biomedical, engineering and computer sciences, with special strengths in the areas of citrus and sub-tropical horticulture, entomology, and arid lands agriculture. On November 3, 2009, the Science library was officially renamed the Raymond L. Orbach Science Library in honor of former chancellor Raymond L. Orbach. Smaller libraries include the Media and Cultural Library, the Music Library, and a branch digital library in Palm Desert. The UCR Library is one of 116 members of the Association of Research Libraries, and is ranked 93rd in this group.

UCR's academic colleges administer significant museum collections in the arts and sciences. The Citrus Variety Collection constitutes 1,800 trees representing two of each of the 640 types of citrus and 28 other related genera in the family Rutaceae, the largest such collection in the world. The Herbarium houses more than 110,000 dried plant specimens from across the Western hemisphere. UCR is also home to 40 acres (16 ha) of botanical gardens containing more than 3,500 plant species from around the world. The Gardens are located in the eastern foothills of the Box Springs Mountain on the University of California, Riverside campus. Over four miles (6 km) of trails wind through many microclimates and hilly terrain.

The Entomology Research Museum contains more than four million insect specimens, with particular strengths in Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Aphelinidae, Thysanoptera and Meloidae. The UCR/California Museum of Photography and Sweeney Art Gallery house UCR's primary art collections. The UCR/CMP includes the world's largest holding of vintage stereographs, one of the three great public collections of photographic apparatus in the US, and the University Print Collection of contemporary and historical images by over 1000 photographers. Located adjacent to the UCR/CMP, the Sweeney Art Gallery holds approximately 650 unique works, with especially strong collections from the modern to contemporary periods, including pieces by Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Millard Sheets and Kara Walker.

Student organizations and activities

UCR hosts over 500 registered student organizations, including the Associated Students of the University of California, Riverside (ASUCR), which represents undergraduates on administrative and policy issues. ASUCR is guided by a Senate composed of 19 elected senators, who represent the undergraduate colleges in proportion to their enrollment, 7 Executive Cabinet Officers, and directors, who are in charge of the various parts of ASUCR, and a Judicial Council6, which adjudicates any cases involving personnel misconduct or interpretation of the constitution. Membership is composed of all UCR students who pay mandatory activity fees. ASUCR assesses these fees and distributes funds to registered student groups on campus, including student lobbying groups, a right that ASUCR won in a federal court case against the regents in 1999.

Of the registered student groups, 40 are fraternities and sororities. Nine men's fraternities belong to the North American Interfraternity Conference; seven women's sororities belong to the National Panhellenic Conference; seven men's fraternities and ten women's sororities represent the National Multicultural Greek Council, and two others fall under the campus Raza Assembly and are unique to UCR. Thirteen percent of the undergraduate student body participates in Greek life, although chapter houses are not permitted. Including the Greek letter organizations, more than 60 student volunteer service organizations at UCR contribute to more than 100,000 hours of collective and individual service done in the community each year. Jewish student life has existed for over a decade through UCR Hillel.

Student media organizations include The Highlander student newspaper, currently published every Tuesday during the academic year. First published in 1954, The Highlander remains an independent student media outlet. It was an entirely self-funded organization until 2001, when ASUCR passed a funding referendum for it. Student fees from the referendum go towards overhead and printing costs, however The Highlander is primarily funded through its own advertising revenue. In 2003, The Highlander published a comic depicting a stereotypical Asian American graduate teaching assistant with poor English skills, inciting community backlash and prompting an apology from Editor-in-Chief Kahlil Ford. Other student news publications on campus include the Asian Community Times, Indian Time, Nuestra Cosa, Queeriosity, and the X-Factor Student Newspaper. Campus literary magazines include Mosaic, published at UCR since 1959, and Crate, published by graduate students in UCR's master's level creative writing program since 2005. UCR broadcasts over radio as KUCR at 88.3 FM. The station programs a variety of independent music, news and commentary.

On-campus entertainment events are planned by a 14-member Associated Students Program Board (ASPB), comprising six student-run divisions that include concerts, films and lectures, cultural events and special events, as well as a marketing and leadership division. ASPB's major events include the Block Party Concert, Winter Soulstice, Homecoming Bonfire and Spring Splash.

The Graduate Student Association of the University of California, Riverside (GSAUCR) is ASUCR's counterpart on the graduate level. It is guided by a Graduate Student Council consisting of representatives from every department on campus. GSAUCR assesses fees required of all graduate students and uses them to fund research awards and colloquiums, conference travel grants, and speaker funds.