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University of California, Riverside Campus Timeline
It has been nearly 50 years since the first students
walked onto the UCR campus in February, 1954, and during that time,
many fascinating events have taken place on the campus. We are
compiling a list of those happenings for use during UCR's 50th
anniversary celebration. Please take a look at the existing list and
suggest additions or corrections via email to kris.lovekin@ucr.edu. Eventually, the time line will be used as part of the campus celebration. Thanks for your help.
The entries that begin with an asterisk (*) signify the existence of a
photo that represents the entry. If you have a photo for an entry
without an asterisk, please let us know so we may make a copy for the
celebration.
April 21, 1948 -- Governor Earl Warren signs the legislation
authorizing the University of California to open campuses in Riverside
and Davis and earmarks $2 million for first planning and design costs.
It was that first monetary commitment that assured Riversiders,
especially the Citizens University Committee, that indeed, they would
get a branch of the famed university. The whistle of the city electric
plant carried the good news throughout the entire community.
*July 29, 1949 -- Gordon S. Watkins, professor of economics at
UCLA and a former dean of the College of Letters and Sciences, was
appointed provost of the new Riverside campus. He toured small liberal
arts colleges for inspiration, and then arrived in Riverside in Jan.,
1950, dubbing himself "a provost on the loose."
Aug. 1, 1949 -- Governor Warren signs Senate Bill 512, which appropriated nearly $6 million to build the Riverside campus
*Jan. 1, 1951 -- Edwin T. Coman, Jr. arrives on campus as the
first librarian and begins to solicit donations and make purchases for
the future library.
February 1951 -- Regents order a delay in construction planning to preserve steel and other resources for the Korean war effort.
May 25, 1951 -- After a lobbying effort by Riversiders, Regents reverse the order and allow construction planning to continue.
March 19, 1952 -- UCR officials receive the authorization to
use the scarce steel and brick that will be needed. Around the same
time, Henry J. Kaiser, head of Kaiser Steel in Fontana, uses his
connections to locate the actual materials.
July 30, 1952 - UCR holds ground-breaking ceremonies for the
$6.5 million construction project. In attendance are State Senator .
Nelson Dilworth, former Assemblyman Philip L. Boyd and Assemblyman John
Babbage, all who were instrumental in shepherding the legislation
through Congress. Construction begins immediately on five buildings
faced with buff-colored brick, including Webber Hall, Geology, Physical
Education, Watkins Hall and Life Sciences.
* Nov. 15, 1952 -- Provost Gordon S. Watkins goes on a faculty
recruiting trip to the east coast. Eventually he gathered young
professors who hailed from Yale, Princeton, Pomona, Stanford, Colgate,
Dartmouth, Amherst, Reed, Columbia, Oxford and other University of
California campuses.
June, 1953 -- As faculty members continue to arrive, quarters
grow so tight that some professors are housed next to collections of
mounted insects in the Citrus Experiment Station.
*1953 -- The Regents pay $1 for the Canyon Crest Housing
project, which previously had served March Air Force Base personnel
during World War II. UCR officials use it to house both faculty and
students. In recent years, it has served students with families.
Dec. 7, 1953 -- The first library building is complete, and
the collection of books can be moved from the crowded house near the
Citrus Experiment Station to the new library. The move is completed on
Dec. 24, with all 33,000 volumes in place on shelves.
Feb. 15, 1954 -- One hundred and twenty-seven students and 65
faculty members make their way across a muddy campus on paths of
orange-packing crates for the first day of classes. Provost Gordon
Watkins paraphrased Winston Churchill when he said, "Never have so few
been taught by so many."
*Feb. 16, 1954 -- Students, all 127 of them, meet for the
first time to organize student government. Charles Young is elected
student body president. He later became chancellor of UCLA.
April 1954 -- Ten thousand people arrive at the first open house of the new campus in the community.
June 20, 1954 -- Twenty students graduate from UCR: students
who had spent most of their college careers somewhere else but chose,
for a variety of reasons, to finish it at the Riverside campus.
Oct. 14, 1954 - Approximately 62 percent of the student population vote in class elections.
*Oct. 19, 1954 -- UCR is officially dedicated, with Governor
Goodwin Knight officially handing the campus to the UC Board of Regents
and UC President Robert Sproul. The newly formed UCR Choral Society
sings Handel's And the Glory of the Lord.
Oct. 22, 1954 -- Student Marty Melburg suggests in a letter to the
campus newsletter that UCR adopt "The Unicorns" as its official mascot.
Oct. 26, 1954 -- UCR holds tryouts for yell leaders in the
ballroom of the Physical Education building. All interested men and
women are invited to try out for four spots, with judging based on
appearance, pep and routine.
*Aug., 1955 -- The big "C" on Box Springs Mountain is made
with cement and equipment donated by the E.L. Yeager Construction Co.
Surveying work is done by students. At 132 feet long, it is the largest
concrete block letter on record. That year's freshman class gave it its
first golden coat of paint, a tradition followed in later years.
Nov. 21, 1955 - The National Science Foundation awards a grant of
$14,300 to Dr. James N. Pitts, a UCR chemist, to determine the role of
light in the production of smog and other photochemical reactions.
*1955 -- The Cub student newspaper is renamed The Highlander
after a vote on potential campus mascots wins with "Hylander," a name
suggested by freshman Donna Lewis and pushed by the basketball team as
a write-in candidate. The Scottish theme is embraced for several campus
groups and buildings.
April 10, 1956 -- The Highlander reports an intramural
softball league that includes teams called "The Physicists," "The Life
Science Nine," "The Socialites," and "The Tired Old Men of Faculty
-CEOs."
*June 30, 1956 -- Founding Provost Gordon Watkins retires,
leaving behind a two-year-old campus that is producing enough Woodrow
Wilson Fellows to be voted one of the nation's 10 best undergraduate
universities in a poll by Dr. Russell Kirk. Watkins is replaced in the
interim by Alfred M. Boyce, head of the Citrus Experiment Station, and
then by the next chancellor, Herman T. Spieth.
*Feb. 14, 1957 -- Citrus Experiment Station celebrates 50 years in operation in Riverside
September 1958 -- Fall enrollment tops 1,000.
Apr. 18, 1959 -- UC Regents vote to make UCR a "general"
campus, complete with graduate instruction and professional schools. It
was a move that greatly disappointed some of the original faculty, but
excited received by those who liked the idea of growing into a large
research university.
*1959 - The Aberdeen-Inverness Resident Hall opens.
Oct. 24, 1960 -- The UCR Associated Students sponsor "Jazz in
the Highlands" at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino. Tickets to
see jazz great Louis Armstrong and his band cost between $1.50 and $3.
1960 -- The College of Agriculture is founded, successfully
combining the work done at the Agricultural Experiment Station with
undergraduate and graduate teaching.
1961 -- Citrus Experiment Station is renamed Citrus Research
Center and Agricultural Experiment Station to reflect its broadening
mission.
April 30, 1961 -- The Los Angeles Times reports the opening of
a new administration building at UCR, four stories tall and fully air
conditioned.
*Oct. 31, 1961 -- Governor Edmund G. Brown speaks at UCR during a re-election campaign swing through Riverside
1961 - The Dry Lands Research Institute and Air Pollution Research Center is established on campus.
July 11,1961 -- Riverside voters approve an annexation of 5.5
square miles around the university campus. UCR is officially inside the
city boundaries.
*February 1962 -- Nobel laureate Linus Pauling speaks on campus about the need for unilateral nuclear disarmament.
March 26, 1962 -- Dr. Glen T. Seaborg, chairman of the Atomic
Energy Commission, speaks on "The Atomic Age at Noon" at the Charter
Day celebration in the UCR gymnasium. He spoke again on campus a decade
later.
April 23, 1962 -- Dr. Edward Teller, a Berkeley physics
professor, described as "the father of the H-bomb," speaks to refute
the views of Linus Pauling. Teller told students that radioactive
fallout from nuclear atmospheric testing would be negligible.
May 6, 1962 - Riverside Superior Court Judge John Gabbert
denies a petition filed by a student group to overturn the UC Regents
decision to ban communist speakers from campus.
July, 1962 - The Statewide Air Pollution Lab founded.
Fall, 1962 -- Fall enrollment tops 2,000.
1963 -- Lothian Hall opens.
Sept. 30, 1963 - "Jesse Fuller and the Freedom Singers" give a concert
of folk, rock and blues in the gymnasium as a fund-raiser for the
activities of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
*Oct. 29, 1963 -- The folk-singing trio "Peter, Paul and Mary"
appear at the gymnasium, an event sponsored by the Gaels, a service
club.
Oct. 30, 1963 -- A group of students sneak into the main
library via the stream tunnels to build a huge pumpkin out of paper and
chicken wire. When library workers dismantle the pumpkin on the morning
of Halloween, ducks and chickens come out and fly around the library
stacks.
Dec. 8, 1963 - The UCR Choral Society performs a Christmas concert in the new University Theatre.
Feb. 11, 1964 -- Official opening of the main library building, which in 1985 is renamed the Tomas Rivera Library.
1964 -- A pirate radio station operates out of the Steinbrau
hall of Aberdeen-Inverness, calling itself KRUD. Two years later, it
blossoms into an officially sanctioned campus radio station, called
KUCR.
*Feb. 25, 1964 -- A young Bob Dylan plays at The Barn.
*May, 1964 -- An issue on campus for a protracted period is the removal
of the neo-gothic street lamps from the walkway in front of Humanities.
They did not shed enough light and some people felt they did not fit in
with the more modern architecture of the campus. Protesters hang
effigies on the lamps just before they are taken down.
July 1, 1964 -- Chancellor Herman Spieth leaves to return to teaching at UC Davis. He is replaced by Ivan Hinderaker.
Fall, 1964 -- Enrollment tops 3,000.
1965-66 -- Folk singer Judy Collins and soprano Marilyn Horne both perform on campus as part of the fine arts series
January 1966 -- The Press-Enterprise Lecture Series begins.
Over the years, it brings noted journalists Katharine Graham, James
Reston, Howard K. Smith, George Will, Ben Bradlee and others to speak
at the University Theatre.
Jan. 11, 1966 - A story in the Los Angeles Times mentions that
a report from the American Council on Education ranks UCR 14th in the
country in percentage of graduating seniors winning major national
fellowships. UCR is ahead of all other UC campuses and also Yale,
Harvard and Princeton.
*Oct. 2, 1966 -- The carillon tower is dedicated. It houses a
musical instrument that was assembled in France to the specifications
of William Reynolds, chair of the Department of Music. The money for
the carillon was donated by Philip and Dorothy Boyd, long-time UCR
supporters. This event served as the first broadcast on radio station
KUCR, which broadcast with 10 watts of power.
December 1966 - The end of the year is the projected
completion of the Permanent Union Building , what is now known as the
Commons. Original plans included a second-story bowling alley over the
cafeteria that was never built.
1966 -- UCR moves to the academic year quarter system.
1966-67 -- With a massive headline in The Highlander that declares "We
Resign!," campus newspaper editor Cheryl Zintgraff and her staff all
walk out, hoping to quell severe criticism of the newspaper. Instead,
the communication board accepts the resignations and appoints a new
editor.
Feb. 2, 1967 -- UCR offers a Bachelor of Science degree for
the first time to students majoring in chemistry, geology or physics.
February 1967 -- The university Commons opens, financed by the
students. (In 1959, two-thirds of the students had voted to assess
themselves $15 annually to build the Commons area.
April 20-21, 1967 -- Governor Ronald Reagan and the UC Regents
meet at UCR. KUCR news director Bill Elledge interviewed Reagan on the
air.
*Summer, 1967 -- UCR students are counselors at a university
program for disadvantaged children from the Riverside area and later
write about how the experience affected them.
1967-68 -- Enrollment tops 4,000
Nov. 8, 1967 -- About 25 people staged a one-hour sit-in at the
entrance of the military recruiting center on campus to protest the
Vietnam war and the presence of military recruiters on campus. The
"Immolation Army Band," a group of people with kazoos and other
noisemakers, played a role in this and other demonstrations during this
academic year.
Nov. 13, 1967 -- Robert Bly, poet and translator, speaks at UCR. Later, he became a leader in the men's movement.
Jan. 10, 1968 -- A Highlander article reports that Alpha Phi Omega is the first national fraternity approved for the UCR campus.
Jan. 25, 1968 -- University police handcuff two men who climbed
the bell tower with rock-climbing equipment. The same night, members of
Beta Delta Sigma, a local fraternity, hold "war games" using replica
firearms and involving even non-players in the plotline.
Jan. 27, 1968 -- UCR workers clip the wings of peacocks that
freely roam about the campus. The birds were donated to the campus by
the Los Angeles Arboretum.
Feb. 19, 1968 -- The UC Regents approve abandoning the Citrus
Experiment Station because it is seismically unsafe. A letter in The
Highlander bemoans the fact that the campus' most beautiful building
has been condemned.
March 16, 1968 -- The International Citrus Symposium at UCR draws 500
citrus industry representatives and scientists from 43 countries,
described at the time as the largest meeting ever held on citrus
production and marketing
*March 29, 1968 -- Cesar Chavez, a farm labor leader, speaks
in the UCR gymnasium about the Delano County grape-pickers' strike. It
was one of Chavez' many UCR appearances. (photo is from '72)
March 31, 1968 -- A new enamel-on-copper mural portraying
people of many nationalities is unveiled in the International Lounge.
The artist is Florinda Leighton of Riverside. "Bridge of
Understanding," was commissioned in memory of citrus grower Thomas E.
Gore by his family.
April 1, 1968 -- Anthropologist Margaret Mead leads off a
week-long speaker series that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the
University of California. Other speakers at UCR include two-time
Nobel-prize winner Linus Pauling and Roger Heyns, chancellor of UC
Berkeley. The topic of Heyns' speech changed at the last minute, as he
spoke just after Martin Luther King was assassinated.
April 25, 1968 -- Highlander Editor Jeff Rummel, earlier
arrested for marijuana possession after a vehicle chase, is the top
vote-getter in a student election. He loses in the run-off.
May 13, 1968 -- Carlo L. Golino is selected as the acting dean for the new School of Education.
May 23, 1968 -- Eugene McCarthy, the "peace candidate" for
president of the United States, campaigns on the tower mall in front of
about 3,500 people. Above the campus, on the Box Springs Mountain, the
campus' concrete "C" helps spell out his name. The other letters are
made out of wide sheets of newsprint.
*May 24, 1968 -- Dr. Alfred Boyce attends his retirement
tribute, along with about 500 other people. It was one of many
retirement parties thrown for Boyce, who was instrumental in UCR
agricultural research for decades.
July 1, 1968 -- UCR parking fees go from $12 to $15 per academic year.
April 20, 1968 -- Leaders are chosen for the newly created
College of Biological and Agricultural Sciences, which combines the
long-established Agricultural Experiment Station with the undergraduate
science curriculum.
Sept. 26, 1968 -- Eldridge Cleaver, the Black Panther Party
minister of information, cancels a scheduled speech at the last minute,
citing threats on his life. University officials say they are unaware
of any threats. In October, Cleaver again says he will come to UCR but
does not show up.
Oct. 9, 1968 -- Chancellor Hinderaker lifts his ban on national social
fraternities, as long as participants agree not to discriminate in
membership drives.
Oct. 22, 1968 -- The Board of Athletic Control votes to resign
from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and align
itself solely with the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Oct. 26-27, 1968 -- About 20 students march to the Riverside
County Courthouse and spend the night in sleeping bags to protest the
Vietnam war.
Oct. 29, 1968 -- About 30 students hold a sit-in to protest the chancellor's new policy banning disruptive activities.
Nov. 7, 1968 -- Charles Young, UCR's first student body
president, speaks on campus just after he is chosen as the chancellor
at UCLA.
Nov. 8, 1968 -- Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew earns the most
votes in a Homecoming Queen write-in campaign, a Highlander-sponsored
prank that turned out to be in poor taste since it stole the spotlight
from UCR's first African-American Homecoming Queen, Renee Dawson. The
Black Student Union objects strenuously and the whole campus debates
the politics of race, the relevance of homecoming and the intentions of
the organizers.
Nov. 12, 1968 -- UCR's first ombudsman, John Coleman, is hired to help
smooth some of the complaints bubbling out of racial and political
tensions among students, staff and faculty.
Feb. 2, 1969 -- James Harmon, a disabled student, dies of
pneumonia at home after being seen at the Student Health Center. Even
though an investigation clears the student health center of any
culpability, Harmon's death sparks a drive to improve services and
access to the center.
Feb. 10, 1969 -- Timothy Leary, the "high priest of LSD,"
preaches on the UCR mall. Days later, the next speaker is civil rights
leader Charles Evers.
Feb. 24, 1969 -- A newspaper article mentions the creation of
a recruitment pamphlet geared specifically to recruit black students to
UCR.
May 21, 1969 -- At the request of protesting students, Chancellor
Hinderaker lowers the flag in front of the administration building to
mourn the deaths of four people killed in 1969 at various UC campuses:
UCLA, UCSB and Berkeley. While some inside and outside the university
criticized Hinderaker, his action earned a certain respect from student
organizers that may have helped keep UCR's later protests peaceful
*May 26, 27, 1969 -- A two-day strike on campus, organized
along with a system-wide strike effort, protests the declared
"state-of-emergency" and the presence of the National Guard troops at
Berkeley and the shooting death of James Rector. The students demand
that they be given a voice in decisions made on campus. It is one of
three strikes and innumerable protest rallies that take place at UCR,
but never turned violent. The Press-Enterprise calls UCR's strike "the
most effective" of the nine campuses.
May 30, 1969 -- The Academic Senate gives overwhelming approval to the creation of an Ethnic Studies program.
June 3, 1969 -- The "People's Art Festival" kicks off a busy
week before final exams, which also includes a fund-raising dance to
help the people arrested in the Berkeley demonstrations; a memorial
program for Robert Kennedy; and a drama production of Albee's Tiny
Alice.
June 5, 1969 -- Freddie Goss, a former star basketball player at UCLA, accepts the head coach position at UCR.
June 6, 1969 -- The Press-Enterprise reports that four UCR
students made a chain of metal beer can pull-tops that measures 142
feet. It is a new world record.
June 15, 1969 -- Tom Bradley, recently elected mayor of Los
Angeles, is the UCR commencement speaker. He mentions that he supports
Hinderaker's decision to lower the flag. (The flag had been raised
again the previous day, Flag Day)
June 19, 1969 - The Riverside County Grand Jury indicts 26 UCR
students on charges of selling marijuana, hashish and dangerous drugs.
Arrests began the next day, based on information provided by an
undercover narcotics officer. Of the 25 arrests, all but three draw
university suspensions or probation.
Sept. 28, 1969 -- Author Alex Haley speaks at UCR.
Sept. 30, 1969 -- An advertisement for Bannockburn apartments advises
that the complex will be complete by March of 1970. In the meantime,
students are invited to live at the Mission Inn for $380 per quarter,
which includes free transportation to UCR. Students take over about 100
rooms of the historic hotel and seem to be well-accepted by the
permanent residents. The university buys Bannockburn five years later
for $3 million.
Oct. 2, 1969 -- Fall enrollment tops 5,400 as classes begin.
Oct. 15, 1969 -- Approximately 3,500 people participate in a
moratorium and teach-in on the Vietnam war. On the same day, five black
football players boycott practice after giving the coach a list of
grievances.
Oct. 16, 1969 -- The UCR Cooperative Childcare Center opens on
Plum Street in married-student housing, in part, due to the lobbying
efforts of the campus group Women's Liberation Front. Cost for care is
35 cents per hour.
Oct. 27, 1969 -- "Cosby's Crowd," (Bill Cosby and a group of
his Hollywood friends), play a charity game of basketball in the
gymnasium against "Hinderaker's All-Stars," which includes UCR's
basketball coach Freddie Goss, who played basketball for UCLA, UCLA
track star Rafer Johnson and others. Cosby wins 97 to 88.
Nov. 20, 1969 -- The UC Regents approve a new academic
structure at UCR that includes a College of Humanities, a College of
Physical Sciences, a College of Social Sciences and a Division of
Undergraduate Education. The School of Education and College of
Agricultural and Biological Sciences had been established the previous
year.
Nov. 26, 1969 -- The People's Lobby, a grassroots organization
trying to gather signatures for two pollution-related initiatives,
falls short of the mark but vows to fight on. The UCR organization
turned in 34,000 signatures.
* Dec. 19, 1969 -- An arsonist burns The Barn, doing $38,000 in damage
and leaving a blackened shell of the campus' gathering spot and coffee
house.
Jan. 24, 1970 -- The Allman Brothers Band spend the afternoon playing
soulful rock on the grassy knoll near the bell tower. Crowd size varies
all day.
Jan. 30, 1970 -- The Highlander headline "Slight John Masi
does big job" appears over a story that calls Masi, a returning senior,
as "the best pure shooter" on the basketball team. Masi says, "I think
I got in on the beginning of a great thing, and I would like to be able
to be a part of it longer."
Feb. 2, 1970 -- Richard Leakey, 24-year-old son of
anthropologists Drs. L.S. B. and Mary Leakey, speaks at the premier of
his film, "East Africa and the Origins of Man," in the gymnasium. Dr.
L.S.B. Leakey speaks the following year.
Feb. 4, 1970 -- Chancellor Hinderaker disbands the
six-month-old Black Studies Department after students demand complete
control over curriculum and faculty hiring. It continues as an
interdisciplinary major. Students protest the decision.
*March 2, 1970 -- The Highlander leads with a story about two
ex-students, John Johnson and Mike Malloy, who went to UC Santa Barbara
Feb. 26 to cover the demonstration for The Highlander, but then became
part of it, throwing rocks and directing other protesters. In the
process, their university car was torched. They were censured by the
chancellor and sentenced to 90 days confinement by a Santa Barbara
judge.
*March 11, 1970 -- Governor Ronald Reagan is invited to UCR to
see the Fawcett Laboratory in hopes that he will offer his support for
the $16 million Project Clean Air. During his visit, students protest
and four are arrested by Riverside police dressed in riot gear. Reagan
never saw a thing. All four were suspended from school and then
reinstated; some served jail time and at least one was not allowed to
re-enroll for the following school year.
*March 13, 1970 -- The UCR basketball team make it to the NCAA
playoffs in Indiana and win third place in the nation. Coach Freddie
Goss, who played for John Wooden at UCLA, convinces his former mentor
to be the keynote speaker at the basketball awards banquet a month
later.
March 16, 1970 -- The movie "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here,"
starring Robert Redford, Katherine Ross, Robert Blake and Susan Clark,
is shown to students in the Humanities Theatre. It was based on a book
by UCR's Harry Lawton.
March 1970 -- Philip Boyd resigns from the UC Board of
Regents, citing his objection to a new financial disclosure law. One of
UCR's earliest supporters, he made frequent donations to the campus,
including financing the carillon tower.
*April 22, 1970 -- Benjamin Spock speaks on campus during Earth Week.
May 1, 1970 -- Students protest the U.S. bombing of Cambodia by
proclaiming the Riverside County Courthouse "liberated territory." In
the next week, they take their cause door-to-door in Riverside
neighborhoods and are received at least courteously, if not
enthusiastically. The Press-Enterprise editorializes thusly: "If
everyone continues to do as many things right as they have done so far
this week … Riverside can be enriched in the understanding of a burning
public issue while still protected on its civic peace." Chancellor
Hinderaker calls UCR a "model for the nation."
May 5, 1970 -- Gordon Watkins, UCR's original provost and the man
responsible for recruiting original faculty members, dies at his Santa
Barbara home. He was 81.
*June 17, 1970 -- Conservative commentator William F. Buckley
speaks at commencement. Protesting students try to hand him a pig,
which proceeds to urinate on the podium. In his speech, Buckley
defended the idea of protest, to a standing ovation. Afterward the
student body president apologizes to Buckley for the pig.
* June 17, 1970 -- A replacement issue of The Highlander comes
out, since the final issue of the year was confiscated by the
administration due to a lewd picture taken from UCLA's Daily Bruin. The
replacement issue, printed with donated funds, again prints the lewd
picture. Highlander staff members Rich Maxwell and Bill Elledge face
prosecution under the obscenity laws, but a judge throws the case out
of court.
Aug. 14, 1970 -- An independent student group, unrelated to the drama department, puts on "The Fantastiks" in the Barn Theatre.
Nov. 20, 1970 -- Chancellor Hinderaker reacts with scorn to a national
magazine's assertion that UCR is the most tranquil and the most
"pot-oriented" of the nine UC campuses.
September 1971 -- Fall enrollment tops 6,000.
Nov. 14, 1971 -- Riverside's mayor suggests that the South
Coast Basin be declared a disaster area for smog relief, hoping that it
will prompt new money for new anti-pollution programs. Instead,
national media focus on the idea that an elected official is branding
his own city "a disaster area for smog." Applications fall drastically.
Feb. 16, 1972 -- KUCR emerges with renewed commitment and some
newly renovated facilities from a seven-month silence caused by failing
equipment and leadership..
March 3, 1972 -- The comedy team Cheech and Chong play to a
packed house and schedule another UCR appearance for the following
night.
May 3, 1972 -- Loggins and Messina, a pop duo, play UCR.
June 2, 1972 -- Casper Weinberger, nominated as budget chief for the nation, speaks at UCR.
June 4, 1972 -- The James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve is
dedicated, a gift from Harry and Grace James of forested land in the
San Bernardino mountains.
*Sept. 26, 1972 -- Sen. Eugene McCarthy campaigns for the U.S.
presidency at UCR. He weeps over the Vietnam war while reading a poem
he wrote in the Commons.
Aug. 23, 1972 -- Falling enrollment causes Lothian Hall to close and foreshadows the need for unpopular faculty cuts.
Sept. 22, 1972 -- The Student Health Center officially becomes
the Frederick A. Veitch Health Center after a longtime Riverside
physician and former health center director. Also, the UC Regents
approve a new signal-relay station on Box Springs Mountain that will
make the KVCR public television station signal available to Riverside
residents.
Oct. 26, 1972 -- Martin Bernheimer, music critic for the Los
Angeles Times, speaks on the subject "Everything You Always Wanted to
Know About Music Critics But Were Afraid to Ask."
Nov. 6, 1972 -- A promotional campaign with the slogan "The
most important thing we have to offer is a damn good education" stirs
controversy on and off campus, according to a Los Angeles Times article
on this date. Later, the promoter, Ken Suid, resigns.
*November 1972 -- Scenes for the pilot of Star Trek creator
Gene Roddenberry's "Genesis II" are shot near the bell tower, but the
television series is never produced. At one point, a special-effects
"fire" on the roof of the library brings a response from the Riverside
Fire Department.
Dec. 7, 1972 -- Chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall speaks in the gymnasium.
*1972 - Award-winning actor Jon Voight speaks on campus about the environment.
* January through March, 1973 -- The Dr. Robert Bingham
collection of cameras and photographs, donated to UCR in 1975 and began
the UCR/California Museum of Photography, is now located on the
downtown Riverside pedestrian mall.
Feb. 21, 1973 -- Comedian and political satirist Dick Gregory speaks on the tower mall with about 600 people watching.
March 16, 1973 -- The Beach Boys make an appearance at UCR.
May 18, 1973 -- Governor Ronald Reagan addresses the breakfast meeting of the Citizen's University Committee.
*June 17, 1973 -- State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Wilson Riles, is the commencement speaker. At the same ceremony,
Chancellor Hinderaker honors the longtime director of the Student
Health Center, Dr. Frederick A. Veitch.
* July 22, 1973 - A team of scientists from communist China
visits UCR, after Nixon's visit to China opened an international
relationship.
Oct. 12, 1973 -- Comedian George Carlin performs at the gymnasium.
Oct. 17, 1973 -- Buster Crabbe, a film star in the 1930s, shows clips of his acting career during a noon film series.
Nov 14, 1973 -- Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speaks on campus. She visits again in 1978.
Nov. 15, 1974 -- Edmund S. Muskie, U.S. Senator from Maine,
speaks to a reporter during a break in the air pollution hearings held
at UCR by Muskie's subcommittee. He said the clean air standards are
insufficient.
Jan. 39, 1974 -- Former astronaut Scott Carpenter urges
continued support of the space program at a noon lecture on the tower
mall.
Feb. 14, 1974 -- The Highlander reports a visit to the
University Theatre from political satirist Mort Sahl. He afterward was
confronted by two feminists who said he did not say enough about their
cause.
Feb. 18, 1974 -- Comedienne Lily Tomlin performs at UCR.
April 17, 1974 -- Film director Frank Capra lectures at UCR.
April 27, 1974 -- The campus administration revives the idea of
an open house for the community, and 3,000 people attend the
celebration of the campus' 25th anniversary. The tradition continues
for many years after that.
May 18, 1974 -- Linda Ronstadt sings in concert at the gymnasium.
June 8, 1974 -- Actress and political activist Jane Fonda gives
a lecture on campus. She returns to campus a year later to campaign for
husband Tom Hayden's run for the California senate.
June 23, 1974 -- Singer-songwriter Jackson Brown gives a concert on campus..
July 13, 1974 -- The UC Regents approve the merging of UCR's
two science colleges to form the College of Agricultural and Natural
Sciences.
Sept. 1974 -- Randy Yates and other concerned students founded
the UCR Escort Service to make sure no one has to walk alone on campus
after dark.
Sept. 1974 -- The first students begin in the UCR/UCLA
Biomedical Sciences program, which offers an accelerated route to the
MD degree. Funding for the program stays on shaky ground for an entire
year as politicians alternately approve the money and then change their
minds. A year later, Governor Jerry Brown finally signs the bill.
Oct. 7, 1974 - Chancellor Hinderaker signs an agreement with
entertainer Glen Campbell to be a guest lecturer at UCR. Campbell never
fulfills the obligation.
*Oct. 2, 1975 -- Two UCR football players, Dan Hayes and Butch Johnson, rank number one in the nation for Division II schools.
Nov. 5, 1974 -- Singer Ray Charles performs at UCR.
Jan. 10, 1975 -- The Barn Coffeehouse reopens with a new look and new bands.
Feb. 1, 1975 -- Keith Austen, a UCR football player, signs with the Denver Broncos.
*March 17, 1975 -- Coach Freddie Goss named Coach of the Year for the Division II conference. He wins again four years later.
April 24, 1975 -- Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge give a concert on the campus football field.
May, 1975 -- The magazine of the UCR Alumni Association reports the beginning of the alumni scholarship program.
Feb. 15, 1975 -- The UC Regents approve a merger of the College
of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Division of Undergraduate
Studies and the College of Humanities to create what is now called The
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Oct. 16, 1975 -- Enrollment drops to 5,057.
Nov. 15, 1975 -- About 75 people turn out for an "Impeachment
Teach-in" offered on campus to discuss the predicament of President
Richard Nixon.
*Dec. 3, 1975 -- The UCR football team is disbanded, despite
winning two state championships in 1974 and 1975. Chancellor Hinderaker
explains that gate receipts were insufficient to pay for the program.
Coach Bob Toledo and several players go to the University of Southern
California, and Butch Johnson goes to the Dallas Cowboys.
Jan. 13, 1976 -- A new animal control officer vows to enforce the leash law, ending the days when dogs run loose on campus.
April 23, 1976 -- Science fiction author Ray Bradbury, in a speech to a
packed theatre, says library founder Andrew Carnegie is the greatest
revolutionary in the history of the world because he gave knowledge to
the world for free.
July 1, 1976 -- Sue Gozansky, already women's volleyball coach, is named to head the men's team as well.
Jan. 1977 -- The Flapper Follies features the chancellor and
other campus notables in vaudeville acts from the '20s, '30s and '40s.
* January. 1977 -- Christopher Boyce, who had just completed
his second week as a UCR student, is arrested by Federal Bureau of
Investigation agents in his Glen Avon house on suspicion of selling
classified information to the Soviet Union when he worked at TRW. He is
later convicted of espionage and sentenced to 40 years in prison. The
book and movie "The Falcon and The Snowman" are based on his
experiences.
March 8, 1977 -- Former Nixon aide John Dean speaks on campus
about his book, which says that Nixon's fate tied to his distrust of
others.
May 1977 -- The baseball team brings UCR its first national
championship under Coach Jack Smitheran. The team repeats that feat in
1982.
May 1977 -- Journalist Daniel Schorr speaks about the leak of the Pentagon Papers.
*May 8, 1977 -- Volunteers travel to Pennsylvania to bring back
the Keystone-Mast collection of stereographic images, a $1.2 million
collection of glass negatives donated to the UCR/California Museum of
Photography. Not a single glass negative breaks during the trip.
June 19, 1977 -- Poet Maya Angelou speaks at commencement.
Oct. 22, 1977 -- Enrollment drops to 4,872.
Nov. 17, 1977 -- The Highlander reports that former California Senator
John Tunney is the guest of a Political Science 45 weekend seminar.
While he was in office, he carried legislation that allowed UCR to
import the heavy carillon bells without paying the usual import fees.
Nov 27, 1977 -- Chris Rinne is named the Division II Coach of the Year for cross-country.
Dec. 10, 1977 -- The UCR Women's Volleyball Team defeats Biola
University to win the national championship for the Division II
Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women . The team is
national champion again in 1982 and 1986.
April 27, 1978 -- An ad placed in The Highlander as a joke,
advertising a nude sunbathing day at the Botanic Gardens, garners
national headlines as commentators ask if the Riverside campus is
"going nude."
May 4, 1978 -- The Highlander reports that large murals in the
commons cafeteria were painted over because they include a swastika.
Even though it was used as a symbol of evil in the mural, some students
objected to its existence on the campus.
May 15, 1978 -- Rock musician Tom Petty plays UCR.
Oct. 26, 1978 -- Fall enrollment bottoms out at 4,610. Despite
the declining enrollment, students overflow Aberdeen-Inverness, some of
them camping out in the lounges until rooms become available.
Nov. 25, 1978 -- A basketball game at Raincross Square pits
UCR basketball players from 1969 to 1973 against players from 1974 to
1978. The old-timers won, 107 to 95.
Dec. 2, 1978 - The UCR/California Museum of Photography opens inside Watkins House.
Jan. 24, 1979 -- UCR tries to stop wet T-shirt and jockey short
contests at the Bull and Mouth, a popular bar on Canyon Crest Dr.
March 11, 1979 -- A newspaper story describes how rare art
history books have been stolen from the library and vandalized. Gervase
Donald Cheshire, an instructor, is charged with the crime. The loss is
estimated at nearly half a million dollars.
March 14, 1979 -- Art Buchwald brings his sharp tongue to UCR,
declaring, "If sons of sheiks had gone to USC instead of Stanford, they
would be surfers now."
March 16, 1979 -- Activist Stokely Carmichael urges a fight against capitalism.
April 5, 1979 - Chancellor Tomás Rivera, novelist, poet and
educator, becomes the first minority chancellor to be confirmed in
University of California history. At 43, he is also its youngest chief
executive.
April 17, 1979 -- Freddie Goss resigns as basketball coach and is replaced by John Masi, a former UCR player.
*April 22, 1979 -- UCR holds an open house and KUCR Station
Manager Louis Van Den Berg interviews Chancellor Ivan Hinderaker just
before his retirement, after 15 years as UCR's chief executive
May 15, 1979 -- A group calling itself the "Apathy Illumination
Masters" paints the "C" on Box Springs Mountain a brownish green color
that makes it disappear into the hillside.
Oct. 30, 1979 -- Coach Ray Dalke takes his karate team to
Phoenix to defend its national title. In October, 1980, it takes the
national title again.
Nov. 1, 1979 -- Enrollment rises to 4,612, up by 2 students
over the previous year after nearly 8 years of falling enrollment.
Those two unnamed students are celebrated as "the big two" by a
grateful campus.
Feb., 1980 -- A potential reinstatement of the military
service draft, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, brings a
few hundred demonstrators to the tower mall.
March 19, 1980 -- John Masi is voted Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
June, 1980 -- Ann McClellan, who has cerebral palsy,
successfully completes a year as a residence hall advisor. She is the
first person with a handicap to be an advisor in the residence halls.
Nov. 22, 1980 -- Fraternity Phi Kappa Sigma shows the X-rated
movie "Debbie Does Dallas" as a fund-raiser, sparking a campus
controversy about pornography.
Dec. 5, 1980 -- The first newspaper story about the forming of
the Friends of the UCR Botanic Gardens, a support group for the
gardens, is printed.
March 29, 1981 -- The library celebrates the addition of its millionth volume.
Oct. 31, 1981 -- Enrollment hits 4,764.
May 24, 1982 -- The campus administration revokes the charter
of the Organization of Arab Students after members of that group
repeatedly harass and insult members of the Jewish Students Union. The
charter is reinstated a few months later on a probationary basis.
Feb. 3, 1983 -- A group called the "Third World Coalition"
protests a $100 increase in the student registration fees, among other
things, during a talk by UC President David Saxon on a visit to UCR.
Sept., 1983 -- For the first time, a master of business administration degree is offered in the Graduate School of Management.
May 15, 1984 -- The Graduate Student Council declares a UCR
safe house for a "sanctuary" for a 29-year-old Salvadoran woman and her
two daughters.
*May 16, 1984 -- Chancellor Tomás Rivera suffers a heart attack and
dies. Approximately 1,200 people attend his memorial service. Acting
Chancellor Daniel Aldrich from UC Irvine takes over. Later, Theodore L.
Hullar is inaugurated as UCR's sixth chancellor.
Oct. 18, 1984 -- Enrollment rises to 4,854.
Feb. 19, 1985 -- The library is officially named for the late Tomás Rivera.
*April 20, 1985 -- The Animal Liberation Front raids the Life
Sciences building, taking 467 animals, vandalizing equipment and
spray-painting walls. The loss is estimated at $683,500. Difficult to
quantity is the theft of time and effort from individual scientists who
must scrap long-running experiments and start over again.
April 23, 1985 -- About 150 students join in a boycott of
classes to protest the University of California's investments in
companies doing business in South Africa
Oct. 8, 1985 -- Enrollment rises to 5,152.
Oct. 29, 1985 -- The UC Regents accept a gift from Rupert and
Jeanette Costo of Native American records, books and artifacts. Later,
they approve the endowed chair named in honor of the couple and made
possible by a generous donation.
Oct. 21, 1986 -- Enrollment rises to 5,726, the highest its been since 1971.
May 21, 1987 -- UCR offers itself as a possible home for the Reagan library, which eventually goes to a site in Ventura County
June 15, 1987 -- Former Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm speaks at commencement ceremonies.
Oct. 17, 1987 -- Enrollment rises to 6,527, a new all-time record for the campus.
Nov. 1, 1987 -- The Botanic Garden dedicates its new wheelchair-accessible pathways.
Nov. 29, 1987 -- Rosemary S.J. Schraer is inaugurated as the first woman chancellor of the University of California.
March 5, 1988 -- Senator Tom Hayden urges the campus to protect its quality as it grows larger.
Sept. 27, 1988 -- Enrollment rises to 7,487, the highest it has ever been.
Oct. 1988 -- The first Bourns Science and Engineering Day for high school students is held on campus.
March 15, 1988 -- Former President Gerald Ford is the keynote
speaker at the first Chancellor's Executive Roundtable, a program for
UCR's benefactors and other influential people. Speakers in later years
include General Colin Powell, Senator Jack Kemp, retired newscaster
Eric Sevareid, magazine publisher Steve Forbes and two former British
prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
*Sept. 18, 1989 -- Susan Hackwood is named dean of the School
of Engineering just as the first freshman class arrives for classes.
May 10, 1990 -- Students overwhelmingly vote to raise
registration fees to finance the construction of the Student Recreation
Center.
July, 1990 -- The UC Regents approve a plan that would put 18,000 students at UCR by the fall of 2005.
Oct. 17, 1990 -- Enrollment hits 8,716.
Dec. 29, 1990 -- A Press-Enterprise story reports that the carillon is silenced this holiday season by a seismic retrofit.
1991 -- The UCR jazz band is invited to the renowned Montreux
Jazz Festival in Switzerland, raises the money and travels to the
festival. It is invited back each year since then.
1992 - The Bourns College of Engineering opens the Center for Environmental Research and Technology.
April 7, 1992 -- Asian students hold a rally demanding more
money and attention for services and programs serving Asian Americans.
April 8, 1992 - Chancellor Rosemary Schraer suffers a stroke and dies two days later in the hospital.
* April, 14, 1992 -- A memorial service is held for Chancellor
Schraer, who died of a stroke just months before her planned
retirement.
April 20, 1992 -- Raymond L. Orbach becomes chancellor.
April 1992 - Spring Splash is canceled after riots in Los
Angeles, sparked by the not-guilty verdicts against white police
officers accused of assaulting African-American motorist Rodney King..
May 3, 1992 -- Students protest during Scot's Week activities,
alleging that the sponsor, Coors Brewing Co., promotes racism.
Chancellor Orbach decides to refuse the $1,500 from Coors.
July 23, 1992 -- The administration building is renamed Ivan Hinderaker Hall.
Nov. 14, l992 --- The Academic Senate endorses a full-fledged
Women's Studies Department, "cheered on by a large crowd of students
and professors," according to The Press-Enterprise.
November, 1993.-After 22 years, long time campus hangout Bull & Mouth closes its doors.
January 1994 - Student Recreation Center opens.
January - City Councilman and UCR Associate Professor of
political science Ron Loveridge wins runoff to become Mayor of
Riverside.
January 21, 1994 -- Ceremonies dedicate the remodeled A. Gary
Anderson Hall, the building that was once the Citrus Experiment Station
and now houses the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management.
May 5, 1994 -- Costo Hall is dedicated, named for Rupert and
Jeanette Costo They helped found the campus and later donated money to
endow a faculty chair in Native American Studies.
May 29, 1994 -- After his speech in the Student Recreation Center, Dr.
Khallid-Abdul Muhammad, a controversial Nation of Islam leader, is shot
in the leg by a former member of the group. Muhammad recovers from his
injuries and James Bess is held responsible for the shooting. Muhammad
was invited by the African Student Alliance, and a "Year of Tolerance"
is declared for the following year.
July 1994 -Bourns Hall opens.
October 1994 -- UCR and Harvard University are tied for first
place in the number of faculty members elected as fellows of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). UCR has
continued to rank at the top of that list in each year since then.
December. 1994 -- The U.S. Salinity Lab moves from its home
near Mt. Rubidoux -- approximately four miles away -- to a newly built
laboratory on campus.
*1995 -- Jerry Brown comes to KUCR to broadcast his show and take callers.
March 1995 - Men's basketball finishes second to Southern Indiana in Division II national title game
November 1996-Twenty students arrested at Hinderaker Hall in
protest against Proposition 209, which eliminated affirmative action in
state institutions.
January 1997 -- Hugh Davis Graham and Nancy Diamond,
researchers at Vanderbilt University and the University of Maryland,
give UCR the top spot in the nation among public universities for
per-capita faculty productivity in a book called The Rise of American
Research Universities: Elites and Challengers in the Postwar Era.
*January 7, 1997 -- Ben Bradlee speaks at the Press-Enterprise Lecture.
January 16-18, l997 -- Angela Davis speaks at "Frontline
Feminisms: Women, War, and Resistance," a conference that draws
hundreds of participants from 27 countries.
January 1997 -- University Village Theaters open for classes.
Starbucks arrives in April and other businesses gradually were added.
April 2, 1997 -- Former Black Panther Party Eldridge Cleaver speaks.
June,
1997 -- KUCR installs a 120-foot tower at the top of Box Springs
Mountain, increasing the broadcast range into Moreno Valley, Redlands
and San Bernardino.
April 14, 1998 -- Twenty-seven-year-old alumnus Steve Breen
wins a 1998 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning while working at
The Asbury Park Press in Neptune, NJ
April, 1998 -- A majority of voting students approved a plan to move
UCR to NCAA Division I for athletic competition, a move that would
raise the campus' profile and increase the budget for athletic
scholarships. Scotty the bear gets a mascot makeover to look more
fierce.
Sept. 30, 1998 -- Enrollment surpasses 10,000 students.
February 1999-Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks on campus in the wake of the Dec. 1998 Tyisha Miller shooting
May 1999 -Academic Senate unanimously endorses UCR's law school proposal.
March 2000 -- UCR is accepted into the Big West Conference for athletic competition.
April 2001-Students overwhelmingly approve fee increase for new $50 million Commons
May 2001- Arts Building opens with large community
celebration. The new Insectary and Quarantine facility also holds a
grand opening.
November 2001.- Chancellor Orbach announces that he will
resign as chancellor to become director of the Office of Science in the
U.S. Department of Energy.
July 1, 2002 - France Córdova takes over as chancellor.
Chancellors through the years:
Gordon Watkins (1949-1956)
Herman Spieth (1956-1964)
Ivan Hinderaker (July, 1964-1979)
Tomás Rivera (1979 - died in May, 1984)
Daniel Aldrich (acting chancellor until March 1985)
Ted Hullar (March, 1985 to 1987)
Rosemary Schraer (1987 - 1992)
Raymond Orbach (1992 to 2002)
David H. Warren (acting chancellor)
France Córdova (July, 2002 to present) |