Concentration 

At the center of the campus academic core, the buildings of Science Hill were clustered to foster productive interaction as deliberately as were the buildings in individual colleges, and by the 1970s they were becoming an increasingly strong magnet to the faculty who worked there.

Even though the academic core had few amentities (and no coffee shops), Science Hill became a de facto college for many faculty. As their research picked up, they began pulling back from academic involvement in the residential colleges where they were Fellows.   

Professors Jean H. Langenheim, Kenneth V. Thimann, Harry Beevers, William T. Doyle, Lawrence R. Blinks, with graduate students, at Natural Sciences I

Professors Jean H. Langenheim, Kenneth V. Thimann, Harry Beevers, William T. Doyle, Lawrence R. Blinks, with graduate students, at Natural Sciences I

Color Drawing, Engineering Master Plan

Color drawing of the planned Engineering area, 1966

Science Hill: early planning model of complex, aerial view, ca. 1964

Science Hill, Early planning model

A Focus on Research

The Long Range Development Plan articulated the importance of a central academic are to serve as a "meeting place for students and faculty from all colleges for instruction or research." Science Hill fulfilled this goal as it enabled scientific research, graduate student training, and rapid growth of the academic disciplines. 

From the beginning, research and graduate work were built into the A Provisional Academic Plan for the Santa Cruz Campus, 1965-1975 (1962). The plan recogized the role of research in attracting faculty and enabling that faculty to achieve distinction. For academic success, faculty need research support, facilities, and community.

Professor Michael Nauenberg (Physics) remembers how the addition of graudate students drew his attention away from the colleges towards his discipline and to Science Hill:

Of course, with the advent of graduate programs, the involvement of faculty with colleges became limited.... After the middle Seventies I had to literally give up my involvement with the college. I think after 1972 or 1973 my college involvement just fell off exponentially.... There was a structural mistake hereat the very outset. There was some sort of a dream, as to how we would have both college instruction and graduate programs, without the corresponding resources to accomplish it.

- from Michael Nauenberg, Professor of Physics, oral history

 

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