Reminiscences of living on UCR campus in California

The University of California was founded in 1868. Its first campus is Berkeley, Oakland, widely known as one of the top university systems in the world. Besides Berkeley, there are nine other campuses established in the later years. They are San Francisco (1875), Los Angeles (1919), Santa Barbara (1944), Pomona (1949), Riverside (1954), Davis (1959), Santa Cruz and Irvine (1965); and Merced (2005).
The university boasts of 2,36,691 students (as of 2012), among which undergraduates are 1,84,562 and post-graduates 52,129. There is a president for the whole University of California system located in Oakland. Website: www.universityofcalifornia.edu.
On an invitation from our second son-in-law KM Farhan Shahil, Ph.D and our 2nd daughter Sonia, then a Ph.D candidate (both in Nano Technology), my wife and I obtained US visas without any hassle and we left for Los Angles, USA, on 14.10.2012. We were picked up by Farhan and Sonia and traveled to the campus of University of California Riverside, popularly known as UCR. We lived there for seven months until the convocation of Farhan and Sonia on June 17, 2013. A picture will show the three generations of ours (including our cute grand-daughter Saffana) together at the venue of the convocation.
Then we moved to Houston, Texas, to see our eldest daughter Tania and the granddaughters Zarin and Zaima. Our eldest son-in-law Khandokar M. Zahid Ph.D after having served at the Texas University, Austin, moved to Houston and joined Chevron (one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world).
I want to share my memories of living on the UCR campus, Crayon Crest Residential Estate, with the readers and also desire to disseminate a little bit of information for the benefit of prospective students who strive for a berth of higher education at UCR.
UCR main campus sits on 1200 acres in the suburban district of Riverside with a branch campus covering 20 acres in Palm desert. Founded in 1907 as the Citrus Experiment Station, Riverside pioneered research in biological pest control and the use of growth regulators responsible for extending the citrus growing season in California from four to nine months. Some of the world’s most important research collection on citrus diversity and entomology are located at Riverside.
UCR is originally a research-based campus for almost all faculties including engineering. Lately, a School of Medicine was opened. It is the first new research-based public medical school in 40 years in the state of California. UCR is consistently ranked as one of the most ethnically and economically diverse universities in the United States. At the national level, UCR occupies a ‘ranking’ position every year. As of 2012, there were 21000 students – 18,500 undergraduates and 2,500 post-graduates. There are 1,600 academic staff. Besides regular academic staff, senior post-graduate students also carry out teaching assignments. As I observed, whenever there was a teaching assignment, Sonia would rush to the campus early in the morning and returned to her bungalow by 5pm. In the normal situation, post-graduate students follow a flexible timetable, but remained in constant touch with the professor concerned, who oversees and keeps an eye on their lab research and study. Most professors are helpful and informal with their post-graduate students. Undergraduate students are also equally important to them.
UCR’s main campus sits at an elevation of 1100 feet to 14500 feet near a mountain, 3 miles east of downtown Riverside and is divided into eastern and western areas by the state road 60 Freeway. The eastern campus hosts the core cluster of academic buildings and services. The western campus along University Avenue, close to Freeway 60, includes facilities such as the international village, the apartment complex, the surface parking, the citrus groves and many other facilities. In fact, a cluster of UCR owned residential estates, and private housing estates surround the university. The UCR main entrance is on this side, but students from other sides also have entrance except the southern side.
In my routine morning and evening walks, I used to cover a distance for half an hour and take rest on a bench on the University Avenue at the main entrance. I watched students pouring in groups after groups walking, on skate-rollers, skating boats, bicycles and a small number in buses. Most of them dressed in their own styles and taste, nobody looked at others’ dresses or bothered about them.
Let me highlight here admission, enrolment and retention involving the university:

Table-1 2013                2012                2011                2010

Preliminary
                  
Freshman Applicants    33809                   30,395                  28,101                  26,478

Enrolment                                         19,062                  19,398                  20,729

% Admitted                                                62.7            69.0            78.3

Average GPA                                    3.58            3.56            3.50

Average SAT                                             
(Out of 2400)                                              1627           1601           1569
The UCR enrols the highest percentage of American, African and different ethnic group students; and hence is regarded as a ‘Campus of Choice’ for minority students and hardly there is racial tension. Students from Bangladesh do not fall under any percentage. I found 25-odd number of post-graduate students of BUET; but no undergraduate students from Bangladesh. I have had occasions of meeting with post-graduate students under Fulbright Scholarship/ other types of scholarship, drawn from our sub-continent, at the different faculties e.g. English, Statistics, etc. The table-II below shows the university’s ethnic environment, 2012:
Table II
Ethnic enrollment, 2012         
     Students
 
African American                                                 6.6%

Asian American                                                   35.7%
White                                                                             17.6%
Hispanic and Latino                                             31.5%
Native American                                                  0.5%
Other / Unknown                                                           2.6%
International                                                         5.4%
As may be observed from table I, only brilliant students get admission and scholarship/ students assistance. Most of the Bangladeshi students got 100 per cent scholarship. UCR has an impact of nearly $1 billion. The money is drawn mostly from federal agencies, state government, student fees, UCR’s Sales and Services and private support.
Prospective students from Bangladesh may visit www.ucr.edu.com for detailed information.
The write-up will remain incomplete without a little touch of the origin of Riverside and its original features. Riverside was founded in 1870. The first orange trees were planted in 1871, but the citrus industry is famous for starting three years later (1874), when Brazilian orange trees were planted and its success was phenomenal. And then the story of experiment-research became something of vital importance till the opening of the UCR. The UCR still maintains its original character. There is a sector on the campus for citrus, where bushes of orange trees abound. The picture below shows a tree full of oranges – which testifies how caring is UCR about its origin
Last but not least, UCR maintains botanical gardens. The gardens cover 40 hilly acres, overlooking the campus. I found it good to wander along a four-mile trail (of course with the help of a walking stick) – but at intervals I had to relax on a bench and bask in nature’s sights and sounds.
The gardens contain over 3,500 species of plants from all over the world. The combination of the variable terrain nature and Riverside’s sub-tropical climate happily results in consistent blooming of the gardens.
The gardens are also a wildlife sanctuary. Almost 200 bird species have been observed. It was a real fun and enjoyment to us visiting UCR botanical gardens – The picture printed below is a happy testimony.
(The writer is an ex-Commercial Secretary, Bangladesh High Commission in London)
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