History of the University of California, Riverside

This article is a comprehensive history of the University of California, Riverside, or UCR. UCR began its life in 1907 as the University's Citrus Experiment Station; by the 1950s, the University had established a teaching-focused liberal arts curriculum at the site, in the spirit of a small liberal arts college, but California's rapidly growing population made it necessary for the Riverside campus to become a full-fledged general campus of the UC system, and was so designated in 1959.

The University of California Citrus Experiment Station

The Rubidoux Laboratory

The Southern California "citrus belt" first emerged in the 1870s, and within two decades stretched eastward from Pasadena to Redlands beneath the foothills of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains. It originated from experimental navel orange plantings first conducted in Riverside, from cuttings introduced from Brazil. John Henry Reed, a retired school superintendent and dry goods merchant from Ohio turned citrus grower, is credited with first proposing the establishment of a scientific experiment station specifically for citrus research in Southern California, and organized a vigorous lobbying effort of the local citrus industry towards that end. As founding member and chair of the Riverside Horticultural Club's experimental committee, he also pioneered a collaborative approach to conducting experimental plantings, and published more than 150 semitechnical and popular papers on citrus and other subjects between 1895 and 1915. [] . That same year, the Regents appointed a 13 member faculty committee to plan the expansion of the existing campuses at Davis and Riverside, headed by Harry B. Walker of the Agricultural College at Davis. Though it was decided that the new college at Riverside would be a separate institution from the CES, with no undergraduate work in agriculture planned, it was also decided that the Riverside provost would report to the president of the UC through the Vice-president of the statewide College of Agriculture, to whom the director of the CES also reported. [Stadtman, Verne A. "The University of California, 1868-1968," page 360] Gordon S. Watkins, then dean of the College of Letters and Science at UCLA, was a member of this initial planning committee, and UC President Sproul requested him to oversee the organization of the College of Letters and Science at Riverside. Watkins accepted the job and started five years of planning, faculty recruitment, and building construction. The onset of the Korean war delayed construction, and the CUC continued to lobby for basic resources such as steel and concrete to build the new campus. Anticipating an initial enrollment of 1000, Watkins ordered the initial campus built for a maximum capacity of 1500 students. Not anticipating the need for graduate work, Watkins focused on recruiting many young, new Ph.D.s into junior faculty positions, rather than already established researchers. [cite web | title=Adrian Oral History Transcript| url= http://www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/adrian.pdf] He became provost of the Riverside campus and presided at its opening with 65 faculty and 131 students in February 1954, remarking "Never have so few been taught by so many." [Martinez, Richard. "700 Join in UCR's Second Founder's Day Celebration." "Riverside Press Enterprise", October 7, 1987.]

Mascot history

When the university opened in February 1954, many students wanted a bear symbol in keeping with the traditional ursine mascots at UC Berkeley and UCLA. The founding editors initially named the student newspaper "The Cub," and out of a total of 67 names entered in a contest to pick the mascot "Cubs" was the most popular, however many felt that this name would permanently denigrate the campus as a "little brother" of UCLA and Berkeley. In November of 54, the men's basketball team championed freshman Donna Lewis's suggestion of "Hylanders" as a write-in candidate in a run-off between "Cubs" and "Grizzlies." The corrected name won easily, as Provost Watkins was noted for speaking with a Welsh accent, and the UCR campus was located at the highest elevation among all UC schools. Also, the Box Springs Mountains were known as the Highlands. [cite web | title=Field Oral History Transcript| url= http://www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/field.pdf] [cite web | title=The History of the UCR Mascot| url=http://www.athletics.ucr.edu/administrative/mascot.html]

Designation as a General UC Campus

The Regents at the time of the Strayer Report did not believe California could afford multiple high quality public universities, so they initially sought to respectively specialize the various new campuses. Riverside was designed to provide a high quality liberal arts education, but not graduate-level research. However, continually increasing enrollment demands at Berkeley and Los Angeles required continual expansion at all levels, so the liberal arts college model, implemented by the Regents as a way of saving money, was ultimately deemed too small and costly in light of the growing needs of California.

By the time Clark Kerr became president of the UC system in 1958, UCR was in its fifth year of operation and comprised 1087 students. Kerr articulated a vision of the UC as "one university, many campuses" and so Riverside, Santa Barbara, Davis and San Diego were all designated general campuses of the UC system by 1959. The Regents tasked biologist Herman Theodore Spieth, then-provost after Watkins retired in 1956, with increasing UCR's enrollment capacity to 5000 students and administering UCR's development towards full university status. As UCR's first chancellor, Spieth was to combine the College of Letters and Science and the Citrus Research Center under a single academic and administrative entity, as well as oversee the planning and development of UCR's graduate division, in accord with the provisions of the developing California Master Plan for Higher Education. UCR started accepting graduate students in 1961; UCR's College of Agriculture, Air Pollution Research Center and the Dry-Lands Research Institute were also established during Spieth's administration [cite web | title=Riverside: Administrative Officers| url=http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/campuses/ucr/officers.html] .

The Kerr directives

In October 1959, President Kerr prohibited the student governments on all UC campuses from taking positions on off-campus political issues without the expressed permission of their resident chancellors. [Stadtman, Verne A. "The University of California, 1868-1968," page 435] Students at Riverside picketed Spieth's office in protest, and student newspaper editors at Berkeley, Riverside and Santa Barbara signed a joint editorial condemning them. As the editor of the UCR Highlander summed up the opposition:

:"It appears that Riverside has been one of the leaders against the original directives, with Berkeley naturally taking a considerable role. Santa Barbara's newspaper opposed the directives from the beginning also, although little more than that was done. The Los Angeles campus was exceptionally slow in deciding anything, which some cynics have suggested as being quite typical of anything there." The Highlander, December 2, 1959. [Stadtman, Verne A. "The University of California, 1868-1968," page 436]

In accordance with the Kerr directives, which also affected speakers on campus, in 1962 Spieth refused to let Nobel chemist Linus Pauling speak on disarmament because the subject was outside his academic field of expertise. The same year he also refused Dorothy Healy, former chair of the Southern California Communist Party, from speaking on campus. Six UCR students sued the Regents over Spieth's ruling against Healy, and the case was still pending when the Regents voted 15/2 to remove the outright ban on communist speakers in 1963. [Stadtman, Verne A. "The University of California, 1868-1968," page 438]

The Hinderaker Administration, from 1960s and 1970s

By the time UCR’s second Chancellor, Ivan Hinderaker, was inaugurated on September 29, 1964, the free speech movement had begun in Berkeley. Hinderaker, who was photographed at his own inauguration carrying a placard borrowed from a student protester that said, ‘The University is not a Sandbox,” cooperated with student activists that first year to develop such projects as the KUCR radio station, a campus child-care center, a political debate union, social events, fine arts workshops, and a few of his own projects such as Greek chapters and grants for student athletes. He negotiated a confrontation with student activists in ASUCR by suggesting the student council would be vacated if they did not rescind a resolution, which demanded President Lyndon B. Johnson support the right of African Americans to vote in Selma, Alabama. Five ASUCR officers, including the council president, resigned in protest of Hinderaker's position, and the remaining council members complied with his request. [Stadtman, Verne A. "The University of California, 1868-1968," page 436] At a later protest against campus recruiting by Dow Chemicals, organized by Students for a Democratic Society, student activists camped inside the administration building were served coffee and donuts by Norm Better, the dean of Letters and Science. [cite web | title=Hinderaker Oral History Transcript| url=http://www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/hinderakeri.pdf]

It fell to Hinderaker to complete the task of turning UCR into a full fledged research university. In doing this, he had to confront the early faculty Watkins had recruited on the premise that UCR Letters and Science would be a small liberal arts institution dedicated to teaching undergraduates. Many of UCR’s early L&S faculty had achieved tenured positions without having to do extensive research and saw themselves primarily as teachers. As Professor Charles Adrian, former Chair of UCR’s Political Science Department, summarized the faculty situation:

:"It sort of was Ivan Hinderaker vs. the ‘old UCR.’ There was talk of the old UCR as if it were some kind of an organization. But it didn’t exist as such. It simply was the original faculty members and some who were hired shortly thereafter vs. the fact that Hinderaker was sent here to change that and make this a regular part of the university system… The resistance would be one thing if it were a minority, a smaller group of the whole faculty. But it was the dominant group that was hired here primarily to teach and who didn’t want to do research … and he was supposed to change this." [cite web | title=Adrian Oral History Transcript| url= http://www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/adrian.pdf]

All Hinderaker could do to that effect was wait for this early faculty to retire in order to appoint new faculty on a research basis. Through the 1960s, UCR's enrollment had risen to a plateau of approximately 5000 students. In 1973, Riverside’s Mayor Lewis requested Governor Ronald Regan declare the south coast air basin a disaster area. This caused Riverside to become famous for its air pollution and had disastrous effects on student enrollment and faculty recruitment at UCR. According to Hinderaker:

:"“…Irvine didn’t have smog. It’s hard to realize what a tremendous problem that was. Your budget is related to enrollment, so what effect did smog have?... UCR in 1971-2 was 5,576 [students] … By ’78-’79, we had twenty five percent fewer students than we did in ’71-’72. In terms of faculty positions, we had taken away from us in ’72-’73 twelve, ’73-’74 ten, ’74-’75 twenty positions.”"

Rumors circulated that the campus would close; Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a merger with Cal State San Bernardino. [cite web | last= Parsavand | first= Shirind | title=Former UCR chancellor Ivan Hinderaker dies at 91 | date= September 25, 2007 | url= http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_D_hinderaker25.4033be3.html | accessdate= 2007-09-26] Hinderaker developed UCR’s competitive Biomedical Program and popular Business Administration Program partly as means of assuaging the enrollment problems created by Riverside's air quality. [cite web | title=Hinderaker Oral History Transcript| url=http://www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/hinderakeri.pdf] He also established UCR’s graduate schools of education and administration, streamlined UCR’s departmental structure, and presided over the establishment of the UCR/California Museum of Photography during this period.

The 1980s

Due to poor receipts, Hinderaker terminated UCR’s two-time Division II state championship football team in 1975. As a result of the 1978 passing of Prop 13, which drastically reduced the state’s ability to fund higher education, another set of budgetary problems developed for UCR as well as for all the public education institutions in California. After Hinderacker retired in 1979, a series of chancellors served short appointments as UCR’s chief executive through the 80s. While enrollment began to make modest but sustained annual gains in 1984, more than doubling by 1991, [cite web | title=UCR New Freshmen Retention And Graduation Rates| url=http://asp.ucr.edu/statistics/read2.php] no single chancellor at Riverside was ever in office long enough to strategically direct UCR’s overall development. Tomas Rivera, the UC’s first minority chancellor and the first Latino leader of a major research university in the United States, dismantled UCR’s Black and Chicano Studies interdepartmental programs in response to the budget crisis. [cite web | title=Concha Rivera Oral History Transcript| url=http://www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/rivera.pdf] He died of a heat attack while in office in 1984. Daniel Aldrich served a one year interim appointment as Chancellor before being replaced by Theodore L. Hullar, who began the push for more professional schools and locally supported development practices that would characterize later administrations. UC President Gardner reassigned him to the chancellorship at Davis in 1987 and appointed Rosemary S.J. Schraer as the UC system’s first female chancellor at Riverside, in both cases without a formal committee reviewed search process. [cite web | title=James Erickson Oral History Transcript| url=http://www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/erickson.pdf] Due to the enrollment gains through the 1980, Schraer was able to appoint 200 new faculty members. [cite web | title=Riverside: Administrative Officers| url=http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/campuses/ucr/officers.html] . She died while in office in 1992, but not before completing a formal, peer-reviewed search process for her successor, Raymond Orbach, who would further steer UCR’s development during the 1990s.

Costo Archive

UCR has long been the recipient of significant support from members of the California Indian community. In 1986, Rupert and Jean Costo, who took part in the CUC campaign to found the university at Riverside, established the Costo Chair of American Indian Affairs at UCR, the first endowed chair of American Indian Studies in the United States and the first academic chair ever endowed at Riverside. They also bequeathed UCR their vast collections, establishing the Costo Library of the American Indian and Costo Archive.

There are Native American student programs and outreach services as well as high school recruitment at the nearby Sherman Indian School [http://www.sihs.net/] . These programs both recruit and aid Native American students. [http://oncampus.richmond.edu/faculty/ASAIL/guide/western.html]

From 1990s to present: Riding Tidal Wave II

With the improvement of the economy in 1994, the UC campuses began receiving more applications than anticipated. [cite web|title=Tidal Wave II Revisited, A Review of Earlier Enrollment Projections For CA Higher Education| last= Hayward| first= Gerald C. | coauthors= Brenman, David W. and Estrada, Leobardo F. | publisher= National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education | month= September | year= 1998 | url=http://www.highereducation.org/reports/tidalwave/wave.pdf |accessdate= 2007-08-21|format=PDF] This surge became known as "Tidal Wave II" (the first "tidal wave" of students having been the Baby Boom generation born in the post-World War II era). To help the UC system accommodate this growth, planners targeted UCR for an annual growth rate of 6.3%, the fastest in the UC system, and anticipated 19,900 students enrolled at UCR by 2010. [cite press release | title=UC Enrollment Growth| publisher= University of California, News and Communications | url=http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/commserv/FS000302Enroll.pdf | accessdate= 2007-08-22|format=PDF]

As enrollment increased, so did the ethnic diversity of the student body. By 1995, fully 30% of UCR students were members of non-Caucasian groups, the highest proportion of any campus in the UC system at the time. The 1997 implementation of Proposition 209 — which banned the use of race and ethnicity as criteria for admissions, hiring, promotions and contracting by state agencies (including the University of California) — had the effect of further increasing ethnic diversity at UCR while reducing it at the most selective campuses in the system. [cite web | last=Robinson | first= Nina | coauthors= K. Caspary, V. Sautelies, S. Geiser, R. Studley, C. Mastern, N. Finkelstein, S. Handel, R. Tacconi, L. Tamayo, S. Bruce | title=Undergraduate Access to the University of California After the Elimination of Race Conscious Policies| publisher= UC Office of the President | month= March | year= 2003 | url=http://www.ucop.edu/sas/publish/aa_final2.pdf | accessdate= 2007-08-21|format=PDF] cite web | title= Diversity in the affirmative, Some point to UCR as an example of why race-based policies are not necessary. | last = Knott Ahern | first = Louise | publisher = The Press-Enterprise | date = May 5, 2003 | url = http://www.inthenews.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=3472 | accessdate = 2007-08-21 ] By 2007, fully 69% of undergraduates were members of non-Caucasian groups.cite web | title=Ethnic Diversity: National Universities | url=http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/natudoc_campdiv_brief.php | publisher=US News and World Report| accessmonthday = August 10 | accessyear=2007] Faculty diversity statistics, however, remained relatively constant. 9.1% of UCR faculty were members of underrepresented minority groups in 1997, only 2% higher than the UC average. This percentage dropped to the UC average of 7.3% in 2002, but was back up to 9% in 2006, making it the third-most diverse faculty in the UC system behind Merced and Santa Cruz. Still, given the diversity of the student body and within the surrounding area, this relative lack of diversity at the faculty level remains controversial.cite news | last= Regus | first= Elaine | title= Groups demand diversity at UC Riverside | publisher= The Press Enterprise | date= October 29, 2007 | url=http://www.pe.com/localnews/highereducation/stories/PE_News_Local_D_latino29.3d749be.html | accessdate= 2007-10-29 ]

With UCR scheduled for dramatic population growth, efforts have been made to increase its popular and academic recognition. The students voted to increase fees to move UCR athletics into NCAA Division I standing in 1998. Proposals to establish a law school, a medical school, and a school of public policy at UCR have been in development since the 90s. [cite press release | title= UC Riverside Updates Plan for Future Law School, Campus has long-range plans for a medical school, a law school and a school of public policy | publisher= University of California, Riverside, Office of Strategic Communications | date= May 19, 2006 | url=http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1347| accessdate= 2007-08-21] In June 2006, UCR received its largest gift, 15.5 million from two local couples, in trust towards building its medical school. [cite web | last= Agha | first= Marisa | coauthors= Quan, Douglas | title= UC Riverside receives its largest gift, $15.5 million | publisher= The Press Enterprise | date= 2006-06-16 | url=http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_R_donor17.1d1979b.html | accessdate=2007-08-21 ] The Regents formally approved UCR’s medical school proposal in November 2006, but Chancellor Cordova's subsequent resignation to assume the leadership of Purdue University lead to a temporary suspension of the search for the med school dean until a search for a new chancellor could be completed.cite news | last= Agha | first= Marisa | title= Regent's ratify Med School | publisher= The Press Enterprise | date= 2006-11-16 | url=http://www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_D_ucrmed17.371bb52.html | accessdate= 2007-08-21 ] cite news | last= Regus | first= Elaine | title= UC Riverside taking final steps in planning medical school | publisher= The Press Enterprise | date= October 22, 2007 | url=http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_medskl23.368812d.html | accessdate= 2007-10-29 ]

References