University of California - History

History

In 1849, the state of California ratified its first constitution, which contained the express objective of creating a complete educational system including a state university. Taking advantage of the Morrill Land Grant Act, the California Legislature established an Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College in 1866. Although this institution was provided with sufficient funds, it lacked land.

Meanwhile, Congregational minister Henry Durant, an alumnus of Yale, had established the private Contra Costa Academy, on June 20, 1853 in Oakland, California. The initial site was bounded by Twelfth and Fourteenth Streets and Harrison and Franklin Streets in downtown Oakland. In turn, the Trustees of the Contra Costa Academy were granted a charter on April 13, 1855 for a College of California. State Historical Plaque No. 45 marks the site of the College of California at the northeast corner of Thirteenth and Franklin Streets in Oakland. Hoping both to expand and raise funds, the College of California's trustees formed the College Homestead Association and purchased 160 acres (650,000 m²) of land in what is now Berkeley in 1866. But sales of new homesteads fell short.

Governor Frederick Low favored the establishment of a state university based upon the University of Michigan plan, and thus in one sense may be regarded as the founder of the University of California. In 1867, he suggested a merger of the existing College of California with the proposed state university. On October 9, 1867, the College's trustees reluctantly agreed to merge with the state college to their mutual advantage, but under one condition—that there not be simply a "Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College", but "a complete university", within which the College of California would become the College of Letters (now the College of Letters and Science). Accordingly, the Organic Act, establishing the University of California, was signed into law by Governor Henry H. Haight (Low's successor) on March 23, 1868.

The University of California's second president, Daniel Coit Gilman, opened the Berkeley campus in September 1873. Earlier that year, Toland Medical College in San Francisco had agreed to become the University's "Medical Department"; it later evolved into UCSF. In 1878, the University established its first law school in San Francisco with a US$100,000 gift from Serranus Clinton Hastings; it is now Hastings College of the Law.

In 1905, the Legislature established a "University Farm School" that would be located at Davis, and in 1907 a "Citrus Experiment Station" at Riverside as adjuncts to the College of Agriculture at Berkeley. In 1959, the Legislature promoted the "Farm" and "Experiment Station" to the rank of "general campus", creating, respectively, UC Davis and UC Riverside.

In 1919, the Legislature arranged for an existing normal school in Los Angeles to become the University's "Southern Branch". In turn, the Southern Branch became UCLA in 1927. In 1944, the former Santa Barbara State College—renamed UC Santa Barbara—became the third general-education campus of the University of California system.

In 1932, Will Keith Kellogg donated his Arabian horse ranch in Pomona, California to the University of California system. However, the land remained largely unused and ownership was transferred to the California State University system in 1949. Kellogg's old ranch became the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona).

The San Diego campus was founded as a marine station in 1912 and became UCSD in 1959. Campuses were established at Santa Cruz and Irvine in 1965. UC Merced opened in fall 2005.

The California Master Plan for Higher Education of 1960 established that UC select from the top 12.5% (one-eighth) of graduating high school seniors in California. Prior to the promulgation of the Master Plan, UC was to select from the top 15%. The university does not follow all tenets of this plan, such as the stricture that no campus is to exceed 27,500 in enrollment to ensure quality. Three campuses, Berkeley, Davis, and Los Angeles, all currently enroll over 30,000.

According to Spanish newspaper reports, UC representatives have visited Madrid, Spain to discuss the possibility of opening UC's first general campus outside of the U.S. there in 2014.