History of the University of California, Santa Barbara facts for kids
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) traces its roots back to the 19th century, when it (as well as Santa Barbara City College) emerged from the Santa Barbara School District, which was formed in 1866 and celebrated its 145th anniversary in 2011. UCSB's earliest predecessor was the Anna S. C. Blake Manual Training School, named after Anna S. C. Blake, a sloyd-school which was established in 1891. From there, the school underwent several transformations, most notably its takeover by the University of California system in 1944.
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Early years
Anna S. C. Blake founded the Anna S. C. Blake Manual Training School in 1891 and offered courses in home economics and industrial arts. Blake, who modeled her curriculum after the sloyd method, would ultimately rely on her neighbor, Ednah Rich, to run the school after sending Rich to study the sloyd method in Boston, Sweden, and Germany. Rich would become principal of the school in 1896. In May 1898, Blake, nearing the end of her life, deeded the school to the city of Santa Barbara, California as part of the Santa Barbara public schooling system. The deed was officially transferred on July 1, 1899, just months after Blake's death.
The Anna Blake School was taken over by the state in 1909 and became the Santa Barbara State Normal School of Manual Art and Home Economics. The campus was on the Riviera in Santa Barbara, portions of which house today's Riviera Theatre. By 1913, the Riviera neighborhood was established and housing for up to 40 faculty and students built.
In 1921, it was renamed Santa Barbara State Teachers College. It began to expand its curriculum to become a more liberal arts college, and it became authorized to grant four-year degrees. Then, in 1935 the college changed its name once again and became known as the Santa Barbara State College, offering broader curricula in both teaching and the liberal arts.
Growth was so rapid that a new campus was needed. When the 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake destroyed Dibblee's imposing stone mansion, Punta Del Castillo, on the cliff overlooking the harbor, land was available, and, by 1932, it had been purchased for the college. Remains of the mansion were cleared and the stone was used to build the retaining wall on Cliff Drive. The first building was completed in 1941.
Takeover by the University of California
Intense lobbying by an interest group in the City of Santa Barbara, led by Thomas Storke and Pearl Chase, persuaded the State Legislature, Governor Earl Warren, and the Regents of the University of California to move the State College over to the more research-oriented University of California system in 1944. The State College system sued to stop the takeover, but the Governor did not support the suit. A state initiative was passed, however, to stop subsequent conversions of State Colleges to University of California campuses. From 1944 to 1958 the school was known as Santa Barbara College of the University of California, before taking on its current name.
Originally, the Regents envisioned a small, several thousand-student liberal arts college, a so-called "Williams College of the West", at Santa Barbara. Chronologically, UCSB is the third general-education campus of the University of California, after Berkeley and UCLA (the only other state campus to have been acquired by the UC system). The original campus the Regents acquired in Santa Barbara was located on only 100 acres (40 ha) of largely unusable land on a seaside mesa. The availability of a 400-acre (160 ha) portion of the land used as Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara until 1946 on another seaside mesa in Goleta, which the Regents could acquire for free from the federal government, led to that site becoming the Santa Barbara campus in 1949.
Vernon Cheadle served as UCSB's chancellor from 1962 to 1977. He initially provided needed stability and able leadership, and gave Storke and other Santa Barbara boosters what they had desired for so long: the transformation of the state college into a research university.
Since 2000, UCSB faculty have won five Nobel Prizes, significantly strengthening the academic profile and image of the University.
Campus development
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The campus has expanded by purchasing property in the surrounding area, in particular a large portion of a ranch owned by the Powys Campbell family. The University's West Campus includes the Orfalea Family Child Care Center, university stables, and West Campus Point faculty housing. The University purchased 221.5 acres of land owned by the Devereux Foundation in 1967 and the right of first refusal on the remaining 33 acres, which it bought in 2007. Land was placed permanently in nature preserve at Coal Oil Point, along the bluffs by the ocean, and the open field between the bluffs and West Campus Point faculty housing units.
The Campbell ranch was purchased and developed starting in 1919 by Colonel Powys Campbell and his wife Nancy Leiter Campbell, who bought the property when they arrived from England. It had been part of Rancho Dos Pueblos, a Mexican land grant from the 1840s. The 500 acre Campbell Ranch was a significant property in its heyday, one of the largest in Santa Barbara County. The property remained in the family's hands until after World War II, with a large portion bought by Helena T. Devereux in 1945 for $100,000. She built a second facility for mentally disabled individuals, which operated until the early 2000s. The University of California bought the last 33 acres in 2007. Remnants of the Campbell family's ownership are seen in the Celtic cross at Cliff House, which marks the family's former burial site. The now-unused historic redwood barn still stands by the University stables. It was designed by architect Mary Craig.
The University purchased privately owned dormitories at the corner of Storke Road and El Colegio in 2003. The University had attempted to buy the 19-acre property previously. Renamed the Santa Catalina Residence Halls, the property has housed UCSB students. In early 2015, the University has begun an expansion of the residence halls.
Affordable housing for faculty was a priority in order to recruit and retain faculty. In December 1986, 65 two- and three-bedroom faculty housing units at West Campus Point were completed. For this and subsequent planned unit developments, the University selects qualified buyers who are offered a unit at a price the University determines. The buyer must sell the unit back to the University at a price it sets and it is then offered for sale to another university-determined qualified buyer. The University planned to build more faculty housing at its North Campus. Originally planned in 2004 to be 236 units of faculty and 151 units of family student housing, the California Coastal Commission required modifications reducing the number of faculty housing to 172 units. A 70-acre parcel of the North Campus land was to be placed in a conservation easement with public access.
In an effort to protect the environment, the University has teamed up with the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to restore the Ocean Meadows Golf Course to wetlands. The property around the Devereux Slough had been partially filled in. Seventy acres of land was added to the over 500 acres already put in nature protected status. The 70 acres was purchased by the TPL for $7 million in March 2013. The University will manage the property as steward; the land will be accessible to the public for recreation. Restoration of the land will need further funds, estimated at $10 million, which the TPL has begun raising.
Facilities developed on campus were building projects funded by student fees, including the Student Resource Building, opened in 2007.
Provosts and Chancellors
- 1944–1946 Clarence L. Phelps
- 1946–1955 J. Harold Williams
- 1955–1955 Clark G. Kuebler
- 1956–1956 John C. Snidecor
- 1956–1959 Elmer Noble
- 1959–1962 Samuel B. Gould
- 1962–1977 Vernon Cheadle
- 1977–1986 Robert Huttenback
- 1986–1987 Daniel G. Aldrich
- 1987–1994 Barbara Uehling
- 1994–present Henry T. Yang
Santa Barbara State College was under the supervision of a President, but in 1944, when it became a campus of the University of California, the title of the chief executive was changed to Provost. In September 1958, the Regents of the University of California established Santa Barbara as a general University campus and at the official title of the chief executive was changed to Chancellor. UCSB's first Provost was thus Clarence L. Phelps, while UCSB's first Chancellor was Samuel B. Gould.
