History of the University of California, Santa Barbara
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.
[13] 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 original campus the regents acquired in Santa Barbara was located on only 100 acres (40 ha) of largely unusable land on a seaside mesa.
[15] During UCSB's first 50 years after joining UC, a recurring theme in its history was a pronounced lack of stability in campus leadership.
The transfer of the state college to UC had been driven primarily by the Santa Barbara community and was accepted with great reluctance by the Board of Regents.
[17] Unfortunately, Phelps was badly hampered by the change in management and the regents' desire to keep Santa Barbara small, as well as World War II and its attendant constraints on construction.
[18] Williams continued to maintain his home in Los Angeles and stayed in an apartment in Santa Barbara on weekdays.
[20][21] He was arrested by the New York City Police Department on suspicion of assault and loitering in a public place to solicit "a crime against nature".
[18] One positive development during these dark years was that the Academic Senate finally allowed the Santa Barbara faculty to join in 1956.
[23] None of these issues went unnoticed by Storke, the publisher of the local newspaper, who was appointed to the Board of Regents in 1955 and was finally in a position to do something about them.
[23] Although Gould was gregarious and had excellent public relations skills, the faculty was greatly disappointed to not get an academic superstar of the caliber of Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg (then serving as chancellor at Berkeley), and Gould was disappointed when he realized he would not be immediately promoted to lead a more prestigious campus like Berkeley or UCLA.
[23] 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.
"[21] During the ensuing unrest that afternoon and evening, the Bank of America branch building in the student community of Isla Vista was burned down on the third attempt.
[21][29][30] In response, Governor Ronald Reagan flew to Santa Barbara the next day and declared a state of emergency.
Bank of America refused to leave Isla Vista and established a temporary branch in a trailer, which became the site of further demonstrations.
[21] The burning of Bank of America was a watershed moment in UCSB history that changed the university's public image forever.
[21] After Bank of America belatedly departed Isla Vista in 1981,[29] UCSB later bought its former building and renovated it into a state-of-the-art lecture venue now known as Embarcadero Hall.
[21] According to future UC President David P. Gardner (who was working at UCSB at the time), Cheadle had started as a strong and decisive leader, but was severely traumatized by these developments and became much more passive in the later years of his chancellorship.
[21] Chancellors Robert Huttenback (1978–1986) and Barbara Uehling (1987–1994) both lost the confidence of the UCSB faculty and did not leave office at times of their choosing.
[21] Huttenback's downfall occurred when he was accused in April 1986 of embezzlement of university funds for remodeling his off-campus residence the year before.
[21] Unlike Huttenback, she was able to maintain good community relations, but ended up resigning to avoid an impending vote of no confidence by the UCSB Academic Senate.
[21] In contrast to all the drama that preceded him, Chancellor Henry T. Yang (1994- ) was praised a year after his inauguration by the Santa Barbara Independent for his "effort to heal the campus soul.
[32][33][34][35][36] In March 2014, an associate professor of feminist studies, Mireille Miller-Young, was charged with battery, theft, and vandalism after she allegedly stole and destroyed a sign from an anti-abortion demonstrator, who was protesting in an area of the UCSB campus designated as a "free speech zone."
[41][42][43] In November 2014, the anti-abortion group involved in the incident filed a civil lawsuit against the University of California Santa Barbara and against Mireille Miller-Young.
The first three students, 20-year-old Cheng Yuan "James" Hong, 19-year-old George Chen, and 20-year-old Weihan Wang, were all stabbed to death in an apartment they shared with Rodger.
The remaining three students were all shot and killed during a series of drive-by shootings; these victims were identified as 22-year-old Katherine Cooper, 19-year-old Veronika Weiss, and 20-year-old Christopher Michael-Martinez.
"[50] 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 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.
[57] 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.
[60] 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.
