Category: 60th

Founding computer science department faculty member, David Huffman, arrives at UCSC. As an MIT graduate student in 1952, Huffman developed a data compression scheme called Huffman coding—which is now used in the MP3 files on music players, the JPEG files in digital cameras, and in high-definition television.

Crown College opens, with facilities built through a partnership of public funds and a gift from the Crown Zellerbach Foundation. Professor of biological sciences Kenneth V. Thimann is the founding provost.

Alan Chadwick arrives on campus, and the Student Garden Project (now the Alan Chadwick Garden) is initiated soon after his arrival. This also marks the “unofficial” start of the Horticulture Apprenticeship program, a program that was formalized through UCSC Extension in 1975. The program has trained more than 1,400 organic farmers worldwide.

UCSC’s renowned elephant seal research program is founded. The program has revealed the animals’ phenomenal diving abilities (they can reach depths of nearly 5,000 feet and remained submerged for over an hour) and 3,000-mile migrations.

Lick Observatory staff astronomers and technical personnel plan move from Mount Hamilton to campus as part of UCSC’s first Organized Research Unit.

Construction of both Cowell and the second college, named for Adlai E. Stevenson, is completed.

University Library, under the leadership of founding librarian Donald Clark, opens with 75,000 volumes.

Cowell College is UCSC’s first residential college, opening with most of the new students living in trailers on the East Field House green. Page Smith is founding provost, and the S.H. Cowell Foundation helps fund college construction under the direction of campus architect Jack Wagstaff.