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The University of California, Davis, commonly known as UC Davis, is a public, coeducational university located in Davis, California, which is about fifteen miles west of Sacramento in California's Central Valley.

History

What was to become the third UC Campus opened its doors to 40 degree students (all male) from UC Berkeley in January 1909 as the "University Farm." (The farm had begun accepting non-degree farmers' short courses in October of 1908; there were initially around 115 such attendees.) The establishment of the Farm was largely the result of the vision and perseverance of Peter J. Shields, secretary of the State Agricultural Society, and the namesake of UC Davis' Peter J. Shields Library. He began to champion the cause of a University Farm to teach agriculture in a more applied fashion after hearing about California students who chose to go to out-of-state universities due to the lack of such programs in the University of California at that time. He later stated:

"There was a College of Agriculture at Berkeley in connection with the University of California, but it was purely academic. It was largely confined to the study of botany and chemistry; it had no farm and little prestige; it was apt to be thought of as a snap curriculum, attracting students who wanted to go to college but wanted to avoid its more difficult work."

After two failed bills, a law authorizing the creation of a University Farm was passed in March 18 1905, and Yolo County, home to some of California's prime farmland, was chosen as the site. The Farm accepted its first female students in 1914 from Berkeley. Renamed in 1922 the Northern Branch of the College of Agriculture, it continued growing at a breakneck pace: in 1916 the Farm's 314 students occupied the original 778 acre (3 km²) campus, but by 1951 it had already expanded to a size of 3,000 acres (12 km²). In 1959, the campus was declared by the Regents of the University of California as the seventh general campus in the University of California system. It has since grown into a vibrant and politically active campus.

Campus

The University of California, Davis campus is the largest campus in the UC system, spanning over 5,300 acres and adjacent to Interstate Highway 80.

The UC Davis campus is considered world-renowned and has been praised for its architecture and picturesque scenery. UC Davis offers broad green lawns and bubbling fountains, sculpture gardens and fine museums, lush landscaping and an intriguing mix of architectural styles. There are huge amounts of well-kept and attractive open space on the UC Davis campus, from Hutchison, Dobbins, Russell, and Howard Fields to various soccer, lacrosse, and tennis fields. It is surrounded by the residential area of the city of Davis.

The UC Davis University Library, which includes the Peter J. Shields Library, the Physical Sciences & Engineering Library, the Carlson Health Sciences Library, and the Medical Center Library in Sacramento, contains more than 3 million volumes and offers a number of special collections and services for undergraduates and graduates. The Peter J. Shields Library is a vast building with three different architectural styles due to various construction and extensions being added; it is the main library where students study on-campus, with a 24-hour reading room, open computer labs, and unique furniture.

Towards the northeast end of campus is the Quad, a large rectangular field which sits adjacent to Freeborn Hall and the Memorial Union, which houses various establishments such as the UC Davis Bookstore, ASUCD Coffee House, food courts, Post Office, Sky Room, and the MU Games Area. The northeast side of campus holds more of the "core" buildings that were built earlier in UC Davis' history, such as Wellman Hall, Shields Library, Mrak Hall, and Hutchison Hall, as well as the North Entry Parking Structure.

The northwest end of campus holds the majority of the Segundo undergraduate housing complex and various alternative non-undergraduate housing such as Orchard Park, Russell Park, and La Rue Apartments. The Activities and Recreation Center, or the ARC, is also located near the Segundo complex. Off-campus to the northwest is the Cuarto undergraduate housing complex, which has two dining commons.

The Tercero undergraduate housing complex is located near the true geographic center of the UC Davis campus, to the north of the beautiful Aboretum Waterway, which stretches longitudinally through the almost the entirety of the south end of campus. The Arboretum is a public garden with over 4,000 kinds of trees and plants that stretches for over 100 acres and located near the Waterway.

The majority of Veterinary Medicine, Equestrian Center, and Animal Sciences buildings are located near the Aboretum Waterway, away from the core campus; the West Entry Parking Complex, the Silo Union, and the newly constructed Science Lecture Hall and the Science Laboratory Building are located nearer to the Tercero residence halls and the core of campus. The Mondavi Center is also located near the Tecero complex, a glitzy upscale home for the University Symphony Orchestra and other cultural events.

There are five public art statues found around campus, collectively called The Egghead Series, sculpted by former art professor, Robert Arneson, who taught at Davis from 1962-1991 before his death in 1992. The "egghead" statues are considered by many to be among the most recognizable features of UC Davis' campus.

"Bookhead" is located at the Shields Library plaza, "Yin & Yang" is located at the Fine Arts Complex, "See No Evil/Hear No Evil" is at the east lawn of King Hall, "Eye on Mrak (Fatal Laff)" is at the Mrak Hall mall, and "Stargazer" is located between North Hall and Young Hall. The "Yin & Yang" egg heads have been recast and duplicated for installment near the Port of San Francisco Ferry Building in San Francisco, CA.*

Academics

UC Davis academic spectrum is rich in the arts, humanities, life sciences, health sciences, and engineering. The university has a world-class medical center in downtown Sacramento. The university also has a Department of Viticulture and Enology (concerning the scientific study of grape-growing and winemaking) that has been and continues being responsible for significant advancements in winemaking utilized by many Californian wineries. The campus is noted for its Agricultural and Resource Economics programs, and the large Department of Animal Science through which students can study at the university's own on-campus dairy, meat-processing plant, equestrian facility, and experimental farm. Students of Environmental Horticulture and other botanical sciences have many acres of campus farmland and the University of California, Davis, Arboretum at their disposal. The university also has world-class faculty in the arts and letters and a large and diverse College of Engineering. The Department of Applied Science was founded and formerly chaired by physicist Edward Teller. Studio arts, theatre, and dance are studied extensively on the campus, and the new Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts features artists from all over the globe.

UC Davis has an excellent reputation in graduate studies and has several professional schools, including the school of veterinary medicine and the schools of law, medicine, and education.

Organization

UC Davis is organized into the following schools and colleges:

Research

According to the National Science Foundation, UC Davis spent $456,653,000 on research and development in the fiscal year 2002-2003, ranking it 14th in the nation. Specifically, UC Davis's expenditures nationally ranked first in agricultural research ($25,683,000), seventh in biological research ($45,283,000), and 13th in the life sciences ($336,796,000).

Its faculty includes 18 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 6 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 7 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2 Pulitzer Prize winners, 2 MacArthur Fellows and one member of the Royal Society.

Rankings

UC Davis is a top research university. In terms of Graduate Studies rankings, in 2006 U.S. News & World Report placed UC Davis First Nationally in Ecology and Evolution. In overall comprehensive rankings, UCD is 14th nationally among public institutions, and 48th overall, in the publication's 2006 Guide to Colleges. However, because the university apparently underreported its percentage of faculty holding a doctorate or professional degree, UC Davis was ranked substantially lower than in previous years. (UC Davis magazine, Winter 2006)

In 2005, UC Davis was ranked 41st in the world and 34th in North America by an annual listing of the Top 500 World Universitiespublished by the Institute of Higher Education in Shanghai, China. The Washington Monthly ranked UC Davis 17th in its 2005 National College Rankings.

Admissions

Admissions to UC Davis is highly selective, as it is to many University of California campuses. For the 2006-2007 academic year, 20,791 freshman were accepted from a pool of 32,611 freshman applicants, an admit rate of approximately 64%. Admitted freshman attained a mean GPA of 3.84 and an average SAT Reasoning score of 1824.

Sports, clubs, traditions, and student activities

After finishing first in NCAA Division II six times in 2003 and winning the NACDA Director's Cup 4 years in a row from 1999 to 2003, the UC Davis Aggies (or Ags) are currently in the four-year process of transitioning to NCAA Division I-AA. The Aggies will be members of the Great West Football Conference for football and the Big West Conference for other sports. The highlight of the transition came September 17, 2005, when the Aggies defeated the heavily favored Stanford Cardinal at Stanford Stadium by a score of 20-17 on a TD pass with 8 seconds left in the game. The Aggies also pulled off an upset against Stanford in basketball just months later, beating the Cardinal 64-58 with a late rally at home on December 4, 2005. The win in these two major sports and the addition of the Aggies beating the Cardinal in soccer earlier in 2005 as well as a win in wrestling and two wins in baseball pulled the Aggies' win loss record with Stanford to 5-1 for mens sports the 05-06 year. The Aggie football team plays California State University, Sacramento in the annual Causeway Classic for the Causeway Carriage. The Aggies are also an associate member of the Pacific Ten Conference in wrestling.

The official school colors are blue and gold. The official school mascot is the mustang. Students at UC Davis are referred to as Aggies in honor of the school's agricultural heritage. Unlike most colleges, there is a distinction between the name for students and the mascot. There was a movement to change the school's mascot from the mustang to the cow, but despite student support this was turned down after opposition from alumni. Many people will call the mustang mascot of UC Davis an Aggie, but this is not its proper name; the mustang mascot is named Gunrock. The name dates to 1921 when the US Army brought a horse named Gun Rock to UC Davis to supply high-quality stock for cavalry horses. The mustang mascot was selected to honor that cavalry horse. UC Davis students gather at sporting events to form the Aggie Pack, the largest student-run school spirit organization in the United States. The Aggie Pack cheers on the sports team to the music of the Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh! and its alumni band.

Picnic Day, UC Davis' annual Open House, is the largest student-run event in the United States, and attracts thousands of visitors each year with the parade, and events such as Jack Russell terrier races, a Battle of the Bands between the Band-uh!, the Cal Band, and the Stanford Band, and film screenings.

Another attraction of UC Davis is its student-run freeform radio station, KDVS. The station began operations on February 1, 1964 from the laundry room of the all-male dormitory Beckett Hall. The station soon gained a reputation by airing interviews with Angela Davis and a live call-in show with then California Governor Ronald Reagan in 1969. The station can now be heard on 90.3 FM and online at their website *.

UC Davis has some 300 registered student organizations and an active fraternity and sorority community. One sorority, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi, was featured during the first season of the MTV reality show "Sorority Life."

Transportation

UC Davis is famous for its large number of bicycles and bicyclists. The city of Davis boasts the highest bikes per capita of any U.S. city. Bicyclists are ubiquitous around campus, and thus a lot of bike-only infrastructure exists, such as bike circles, large bike lanes, and traffic signals exclusively for bikes. Davis also has bike police, who, among other things, give tickets for "BUI" (bicycling under the influence). All bikes on the UC Davis campus must be registered with a California Bicycle license.

UC Davis is also well known for its bus service, Unitrans, and their trademark London double decker buses. It has been in operation since 1968 and is believed to be the only general purpose (non-sightseeing) transit system in the U.S. to operate vintage double deck buses in daily service. The system is operated and managed entirely by students and offers fixed-route transportation throughout the city.

UC Davis is bounded by freeways on two sides (Highway 113 and Interstate 80). All other UC campuses are either somewhat distant from the closest freeway or are directly adjacent to only one freeway. Two freeway exits are entirely within UCD's boundaries. One, off Highway 113, is signed "UC Davis / Hutchinson Drive" and the other, off Interstate 80, is signed exclusively as "UC Davis."

Easy freeway access, coupled with increasing housing costs in the city of Davis, have led to increased numbers of students commuting via automobile. Some students choose to live in the neighboring communities of Sacramento, Dixon or Woodland, and use their own cars or the county-wide Yolobus to get to UC Davis.

Notable people at UC Davis

References

External links

Official websites

Student websites

University of California, Davis | University of California | Educational institutions established in 1905 | Association of American Universities | Great West Football Conference | Land-grant universities | Yolo County, California | Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Université de Californie à Davis | カリフォルニア大学デービス校 | Университет Калифорнии Дэвис | 戴維斯加利福尼亞大學

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "University of California, Davis".

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