University of California, Riverside

From Freepedia

The University of California, Riverside is a public, coeducational university situated in Riverside, California beside Box Springs Mountain. It is one of ten University of California campuses and is popularly known as UCR or UC Riverside. As of 2003, UCR was the fastest-growing UC campus in terms of enrollment and endowment.

Contents 1 Academics 2 Organization 2.1 Chancellors 2.2 Colleges and Schools 2.3 Future Professional Schools 3 Athletics 4 Notable faculty 5 Notable alumni and students 6 Nobel laureates 7 Points of Interest 8 External links

Academics

UCR was originally established in 1907 as the Citrus Experiment Station (which introduced the navel orange to the United States) and significant agricultural research still takes place there. Today, UCR is oriented towards undergraduates, with 78 majors and 45 minors, but also offers graduate degrees. It is the only UC campus to offer an undergraduate degree in creative writing and, along with the Berkeley campus, one of the only UCs to offer an undergraduate degree in Business Administration.

UCR's enrollment growth is among the the highest of all UC schools. Historically, all UC-eligible students (generally defined as the top 12.5% of all California high school graduates) have been eligible for admission at Riverside. Consequently the school has a greater acceptance rate and a lower average GPA and SAT score for incoming freshmen than any other UC campus. In 2004, UC Riverside accepted 73.5% of incoming applicants [1], among the highest rates in the UC system. Despite this however UCR has many well regarded programs in such fields as creative writing and business and ranks favorably compared with colleges nationwide. [2]

With the UC Merced beginning operation in 2005, all UC-eligible students will automatically qualify for admission there instead. In addition, growth in Southern California, particularly the Inland Empire, additional facilities, and improved programs in engineering will attract more students to the university, which will in turn make the school more selective. Currently, many of Riverside's programs, such as writing and business are well regarded, and the school compares favorably in rankings to other universities in the country. To accommodate the growth in high school students in California, the campus is slated to grow to up to 21,060 students by 2010, and the potential for 25,000 students by 2015.

Riverside offers a joint medical degree program with UCLA. Students complete the first two years of medical school at Riverside while completing the remaining time and the residency at UCLA. Students admitted in the program will receive a B.S. in Biomedical Sciences from UCR and an MD degree from UCLA School of Medicine. In the past, the UCLA program was only offered to biomedical science majors, but after 2002, all qualified majors may apply to the program. Twenty-four are selected to spend 2 more years at UCR and the remaining 2 at UCLA.

UCR is also a primary partner in the Riverside Regional Technology Park, which also includes the City of Riverside, the County of Riverside, and various private industry members. The park is intended to assist entrepreneurs in developing new products and help move UCR discoveries into the marketplace.

UCR's library system is divided into general collections, music, media, and science specialties. General collections reside in the Tomas Rivera library. Science and technology literature are at the Science library building.

UCR is host to the world's largest academic collection of Star Trek material. Some of this material is apparently marked for "Library Use Only" since it is on display part of the J. Lloyd Eaton Collection on the fourth floor of the UCR Rivera Library.

Organization

Chancellors

• Gordon Watkins (1949-1956)
• Herman Spieth (1956-1964)
• Ivan Hinderaker (1964-1979)
• Tomás Rivera (1979-1984) First Minority UC Chancellor
• Daniel Aldrich (1984, acting)
• Ted Hullar (1985-1987)
• Rosemary Schraer (1987-1992) First Female UC Chancellor
• Raymond Orbach (1992-2002)
• David H. Warren (2002, acting)
• France A. Córdova (2002-present)

Colleges and Schools

UCR's academic departments and programs are organized into five colleges and schools:

• UC Riverside College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences;
• UC Riverside College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences;
• UC Riverside Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering;
• UC Riverside A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management;
• UC Riverside Graduate School of Education.

UCR's University Extension program provides continuing education to community members of the Inland Empire.

Future Professional Schools

• UC Riverside proposed a Law School that the Regents of California have put on hold due to the budget crisis
• UC Riverside has made it a goal to eventually have a full fledged Medical School

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Athletics

UCR competes in the NCAA Division I in the Big West Conference. The official UCR mascot is the Highlander, a tartan-wearing bear.

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Notable faculty

• John V. Tunney - Professor of Business Law, former United States Senator and Representative
• Carl Cranor - Ph.D., Professor of Legal Philosophy, Philosophic Issues in Science and the Law, Moral Philosophy, Regulatory Policy, Political Philosophy, and Pioneer of toxic tort litigation, serving as reference to Federal Judges, elected to U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the Collegium Ramazzini (International Headquarters in Carpi, Italy), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Paul Hoffman - Ph.D., Professor of Early Modern Philosophy, Moral Psychology, Philosophy of Mind, and considered to be one of the most prominent leading scholars on the Metaphysics of Descartes in the philosophy community
• Richard Cardullo - Professor of Biology, Expert on mammalian fertilization, biophysicist
• Umar Mohideen - Professor of Physics, measured the Casimir Effect
• George Edgar Slusser - Professor of Comparative Literature, science fiction expert
• John Baez - Professor of Mathematics, mathematical physicist
• Susan Straight - Writer and director of Literature Department
• Clifford Trafzer - Writer and Lecturer of Native American Studies and History Departments.
• Austin Turk - Noted Criminologist and Professor of Sociology.

Notable alumni and students

• Billy Collins (PhD 1971) - The eleventh U.S. Poet Laureate
• Jamie Chung - MTV Real World San Diego, Featured on The Smoking Gun
• Gary McCord - golf player and announcer
• Troy Percival - professional baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers
• Charles E. Young (1954) - first UCR student body president and former chancellor at University of California, Los Angeles
• Ed Gomez Former Student Regent, currently Professor at San Bernardino Valley College.
• Johanna Botta - MTV Real World Austin, Featured on The Smoking Gun
• David Hasselhoff - famous TV persona, known for a lead role in Bay Watch TV-show
• Byron H. Pollitt, Jr - BS, Executive Vice President and CFO of Gap Inc. Gap Inc. largest specialty retailer in U.S.

Nobel laureates

• Dr. Richard R. Schrock - (BA, 1967) Nobel Laureate (Chemistry, 2005) and professor at MIT

Points of Interest

• University of California, Riverside, Botanic Gardens
• Student Recreation Center
• University Commons

External links

• Main UCR site
• UCR Athletics
• Campus map
• Web tour
• Digital History Archive of UCR

Big West Conference  Cal Poly | Cal State Fullerton | Long Beach State | Northridge  Pacific | UCI | UCR | UCSB Entering in 2007-08: UC Davis

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