Revelle College
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| Revelle College | |
|---|---|
| File:Revelle logo.png | |
| Motto | Purpose, Truth, Vision |
| Established | 1964 (first) |
| Status | undergraduate, liberal arts |
| Provost | Paul K. L. Yu |
| Deans |
|
| Residents | 3,622[1] (16% of UCSD campus population) |
| Undergraduates | 4,167[2] |
| Newspaper | Revellations |
| Major events |
|
| Core course | Humanities (HUM) |
| Website | Official website |
Revelle College is the oldest residential college at the University of California, San Diego. Founded in 1964, it is named after oceanographer and UCSD founder Roger Revelle. UCSD—and, with it, Revelle College—was founded at the height of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Of the initial class of 181 undergraduate students, all but 30 were science majors. Revelle College remains focused on developing "a well-rounded student who is intellectually skilled and prepared for competition in a complex world."
Revelle's general education requirements are both rigorous and highly structured and attempt to follow the traditions of a classic liberal arts college. Revelle's stated goal of creating "Renaissance scholars" is reflected in their general education requirements, which ensure that a student graduating from the college has experienced a wide array of subjects from a year of calculus to proficiency in a foreign language. Revelle College's core writing course is known as Humanities (HUM), and is a notoriously challenging Western Civilization course that incorporates writing, history and other social science requirements into a five-quarter (12⁄3 year) sequence through which students attempt to understand the greater social and literary developments throughout Western culture.
In 2014, the college celebrated its 50th anniversary. The same year, UCSD Housing and Dining opened a new dining commons named "64 Degrees" to replace the old Plaza Cafe and Incredi-Bowls food truck.[3]
Contents
History
Much of Revelle College's initial history mirrors that of UC San Diego itself, as the development of the first undergraduate college was instrumental in founding the university. Revelle College was actually established as the Institute of Technology and Engineering in 1958. The Institute, soon renamed to the School of Science and Engineering, was initially housed at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and headed by Roger Revelle. A planned 99 faculty were to instruct 450 graduate students in earth sciences, biology, physics, chemistry, engineering, and mathematics.[4] Roger Revelle and several recently recruited professors, including Keith Brueckner, James R. Arnold, and David Bonner, began to aggressively recruit professors from across the country to their new university.[5] In 1961, construction began on the first permanent building at the new campus. Buildings A and B, now Urey Hall and Mayer Hall respectively, housed laboratories, office space, and lecture halls. They were completed and inaugurated in 1963.[6][7]
Later in 1963, Chancellor Herbert York began to implement the 1959 master plan as visualized by Revelle, Arnold, and University of California President Clark Kerr.[5] The plan called for the creation of twelve loosely related undergraduate colleges, the first of which York formed by renaming the School of Science and Engineering to simply The First College. Simultaneously, York created the Division of Letters and Science to handle the nascent university's academics; this division would house the original departments of physics, chemistry, and biological sciences, as well as the recently formed departments of philosophy and literature.[8] The first undergraduates enrolled in late 1964.[9]
The First College continued to grow to accommodate increasing undergraduate and graduate enrollment at the university. In early 1965, the Regents of the University of California voted to rename the college in Roger Revelle's honor. Revelle had recently resigned his posts as UCSD Dean of Research and SIO Director to become director of the Center for Population Studies at Harvard University.[9] Revelle College remains the only undergraduate college at UCSD named for a living honoree.
By the start of the 1965-1966 school year, Revelle College had grown to loosely resemble the modern campus, surrounding a central plaza. The completion of the sixth academic building, Building F (now York Hall), marked the end of its growth and the beginning of the establishment of John Muir College.[10][11] In addition to a library in Building E (Galbraith Hall), the college was equipped to house 440 undergraduates in the newly constructed Fleet residence halls.[12] An 800-seat cafeteria, the Plaza Cafe, was constructed to replace the canteen in the basement of Building C (Mayer Hall).[13] Blake and Argo Halls were added in 1968.[14]
Campus
The Revelle College grounds encompass the southwest corner of the UC San Diego campus. Revelle is bounded to the west by North Torrey Pines Road, to the north by Muir College's athletic facilities and the Student Center, to the east by Gilman Drive and the School of Medicine, and to the south by Scholars Drive South and the Theater District. The college's buildings are laid around a central plaza, with the residential buildings west of the plaza and the academic buildings surrounding the remaining three sides. The southern section of Revelle College is occupied by two large parking lots and grassy hills, and the administration building sits in a grove in the southeast corner.[15]
Revelle Plaza is the centerpiece of Revelle College, and has served as an important space for campus activities and socialization since its creation. During the mid-to-late sixties, Revelle Plaza was the location of many protests. The May 1970 Peace Memorial in its southeast corner commemorates the anti-war self-immolation of Revelle student George Winne, Jr.[16] The adjacent fountain was donated by Pacific Southwest Airlines in 1965.[17]
The residential section of the Revelle College campus is located to the west of the plaza. Blake and Argo Halls are between the plaza and the courtyard containing the Anchor. North of this courtyard lies the Revelle Commons complex. In addition to four conference rooms, this complex houses Roger's Market and the Revelle dining commons, 64 Degrees.[18] 64 Degrees serves burgers, Chinese-inspired plates, salads, sandwiches, and American cuisine.[19] In 2015, a full-service restaurant called 64 North was opened to complement 64 Degrees and provide the southern part of campus with an upscale dining option.[20]
There are two major lecture halls in Revelle College, with one located in Galbraith Hall and another in York Hall. The other academic buildings in Revelle are the Natural Sciences Building, Pacific Hall, Mayer Hall, Bonner Hall, and Urey Hall. Collectively, these eight buildings house the Division of Biological Sciences, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Humanities Program, the Department of Physics, and the Department of Theatre and Dance.[21] York, Mayer, and Bonner Halls are noted for the unique hexagonal breezeways that connect the buildings.
Revelle College has one Stuart Collection piece, the La Jolla Project by Richard Fleischner. This sculpture, referred to by the campus community as Stonehenge, gives its nickname to the surrounding Stonehenge Lawn. Other public works of art around Revelle College include the Mario Torero murals on the side of the Ché Café, the giant red chair by Galbraith Hall, and the 56 ft × 22 ft surfer graphic on the east wall of 64 Degrees.[19]
Academics
The Revelle general education curriculum is one of the most stringent on campus, and has been since the college's inception. Provost Daniel Wulbert described the curriculum as having "something there for almost everyone to dislike."[22] Students are expected to complete courses in calculus, science, language, social science, and the fine arts, as well as a five-quarter writing sequence focusing on the literature, history, and philosophy of Western civilization.[23] The curriculum crosses traditional academic disciplinary boundaries in order to encourage the development of "Renaissance men and women".[24]
The five-quarter Humanities sequence forms the cornerstone of Revelle's academic requirements. As its name suggests, the sequence requires students to examine and respond to humanistic philosophy and literature. The first two courses, usually taken by first-year students, focus on intensive writing instruction while covering literature and history from the Hebrew Bible, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, the Bible, and the Middle Ages. The following three courses cover the remainder of Western civilization, from Renaissance literature to modern socialist and nationalist movements.[25] Since 2007, Revelle students have also had the option of taking Humanities 3 in Italy through the Revelle in Rome program.[26]
Residential life
Revelle's Residence Halls for first-year students are all named after famous exploring ships:
The largest residence hall, Argo Hall, is a six-story building that houses 350 students. Each floor has its own study lounge and kitchen, and the base of the building houses conference rooms, two social lounges, a postal center, and piano practice rooms. Argo Hall was most recently renovated in 2015. Blake Hall is a four-story building with 180 residents, as well as two patios and a large study lounge and kitchen on the uppermost floor. The six remaining residence halls comprise the Fleet residences, each of which houses 110 students above a study lounge. Approximately 40% of the students living in Fleet residence halls are from colleges other than Revelle.[27]
Revelle College also offers apartment housing for continuing undergraduates in the Matthews Apartments in Sixth College, as well as in the recently-built Charles David Keeling Apartments. The Keeling Apartments, completed in 2009, are the first LEED platinum-certified residential buildings in the University of California system. The complex is composed of three connected towers that collectively house 510 students.[28]
The Revelle Residence Life office organizes over 500 events each year for Revelle students in the residence halls and on-campus apartments.[29] Students also have the option to get involved by joining one one of the student organizations or leadership programs funded by Revelle College Council.[30]
Traditions
Revelle College has developed numerous traditions over the past fifty years. The most well-known of these, the annual Watermelon Drop, takes place every June prior to finals week. The tradition began in 1965, when a physics professor asked his students to calculate the terminal velocity of a watermelon dropped from the seventh floor of Urey Hall. Prior to the event, Revelle College hosts a pageant to name a Watermelon Queen, who drops the watermelon from the same building each year.[31] The Muir Pumpkin Drop is based on this festival.
Other traditions at Revelle include painting the Revelle Anchor, a centrally-located anchor that serves as a bulletin board and artistic outlet. Students can spray-paint the anchor every night. Revelle College students also celebrate Roger Revelle's birthday at the end of winter quarter with a barbecue lunch. In the spring, Revelle College Council organizes the Revellution concert, which features local stars and rising independent artists.[32]
References
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- ↑ Revelle Humanities
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- ↑ Charles David Keeling Apartments
- ↑ Choosing Revelle
- ↑ Involvement Opportunities
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Revelle Events and Traditions
External links
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