The UCSB Department of Geography, 1963 through 2003: A Short Historical Summary

The University of California Santa Barbara's Department of Geography currently has 23 faculty, 23 staff, nearly 200 undergraduates and 100 graduate students. At the last ranking (in 1995), the National Research Council rated the department Number 4 in the nation. In recent years, Geography has received more extra mural research funds than any other department on campus and more faculty awards than any other Geography department nationwide. How did it become so large and so well respected internationally?

In the 1960s, Geography at UCSB had neither Department status nor autonomy. It was staffed by young men just starting their careers and visiting lecturers from other nations. Students were attracted to the program because they were passionate about environmental issues and because Geography faculty and staff were so welcoming and friendly. Despite a bloom in numbers and offerings, the program nearly completely collapsed. UCSB administrators had to decide whether Geography would have a presence at UCSB or not and, if so, what that would look like. The Dean of the College of Letters and Science, who was a Chemistry professor and officially the Geography Chair, decided that geographic studies based on science and technology, in line with the aerial photography and remote sensing that Jack Estes was teaching, would be desirable. In 1974, the Dean hired David Simonett, from Australia, as the first Chair of the newly formed Department.

Simonett's strategy was to hire senior professors, who were connected by the common use of measurement and analysis, in the fields of vegetation, marine, and water resources, and in human behavioral and urban economic studies, then to in-fill each field with junior people. A wiry, intensely energetic man, Simonett had the vision, firepower, and pro-active supportiveness to get top talent and to nurture the fledgling community into an exciting department.

Subsequent Chairs carried through Simonett's original vision and fleshed out the team of faculty. By 1978, the Department offered a Master's program; by 1980, a Doctorate. Various struggles had to be surmounted through the years: for example, obtaining adequate and fair funding from the Administration; increasing building space and staff; weathering the impact of retirement, illness, and death; surviving state-wide budget cuts (faculty and staff took mandatory pays cuts in 93-94); and, when seeking new talent, getting past the thorn of ultra-high housing costs.

Today, the Department has challenges arising from its very success. The Geography community has become so diverse and complex that no one person can play the role Simonett did - driving, connecting, catalyzing, advocating - even if he or she wanted to. Instead, each member needs to support and encourage the others. Recognizing this, the faculty begin their 2001 Vision Statement, "We will build an extraordinary community…."

Fresh vision is essential for continued success. UCSB's Geography Department has chosen to further its computational and modeling emphasis by focusing on cutting-edge developments in geographic information science and interdisciplinary approaches to spatial-temporal dynamics. This focus, along with commitment to community, will hopefully continue to foster a dynamic and fertile Department where people create new knowledge about planet earth and its inhabitants.

Early History to 1966

Geography courses were first offered at Santa Barbara when it became a campus of the University in 1944. Faculty members of various departments taught these courses, notably J. Fred Hallerman, professor of economics, and Robert W. Webb, professor of Geology. In 1961, Robert B. Johnson was named lecturer in geography and began to expand the curriculum. Johnson was joined by Patrick J. Tyson in 1962. Five courses were offered that year and five in 1963.

The geography program, which had been administered by the Department of Social Sciences, was included in the Department of Sociology-Anthropology in 1961, when the former department was split up. In 1963, Anthropology and sociology became separate academic departments and geography was put under the direct charge of the dean of the College of Letters and Science. In July 1963, Berl Golomb and Robert W. McColl, then PhD candidates at the Los Angeles campus and the University of Washington, respectively, were named lecturers in Geography. In January, 1965, Golomb and McColl were appointed assistant professors. Ronald J. Horvath was named acting assistant professor of geography in July, 1965. He became assistant professor in July, 1966.

A minor in geography was established in 1965. In February, 1966, the A.B. program in geography was instituted. Twenty-three majors were enrolled at the end of spring semester, 1966. The program remains under the chairmanship of the dean of the College of Letters and Science, pending formal organization of the department.

--Berl Golomb, "Geography," The Centennial Record of the University of California 1868-1968,
UC Printing Dept, Berkeley, 1967, pg. 493

Rebirth of Geography in the 1970s

In 1975 a major new venture was undertaken in the wholesale reconstitution of the Geography department under Professor David Simonett, a distinguished geographer from Australia. Within five years the staff of five faculty members, all but one of them hired in 1975, had doubled to ten, extramural research funds had reached the level of $650,000 annually, and the graduate program was expanding rapidly (approval to offer the doctorate was received at the opening of 1980).

The principal impetus toward this swift development came in the vigorous activity of the Department's Geography Remote Sensing Unit, which quickly gathered an international reputation for imaginative application of recently developed remote sensing technology, using among other sources, satellite-generated data. Aimed at earth resources management, the program developed and put to use a sophisticated data processing system. Originating in 1971, when Professor John Estes of the department gathered a research team in remote sensing, the unit was soon working with geologists, engineers, physicists, chemists, computer scientists, and environmental scientists, on remote sensing projects around the world which focused on forests, oceanography, farming, water resources, soils and similar phenomena.

--Robert Kelley (a UCSB history professor at the time),
Transformations: UC Santa Barbara 1909-1979, published by the Associated Students in 1981, pg. 118

Early Department History: From Catalogs, Archives, and Emails

The University of California Santa Barbara had its roots in a California State Teachers' College. The campus was on the Santa Barbara Riviera, where the current owner, Brooks Institute of Photography, now rents space to a movie theater and a business park. When the school was on the Riviera, geography classes were offered by faculty from various departments (for instance, Geology and Economics). The college became officially part of the University of California in 1944.

By 1954, the campus was spread over two sites -- the Riviera and the mesa overlooking the harbor and Ledbetter beach. (The mesa site is now City College.) Having outgrown the space, the school moved entirely to its present location in an unincorporated part of Santa Barbara. The site had been marine base, and the University still uses some of the government "temporary" buildings that were part of the base. The campus is bordered by the largely-student community of Isla Vista on the west and the Santa Barbara airport on the north. East and south is the Pacific Ocean.

In 1962, Dr. Robert Johnson and a young doctoral candidate were hired as lecturers to teach a few geography classes. The two men did not stay. In 1963, Berl Golomb (a doctoral candidate) and Robert McColl (who had a BA), were tapped. At the time Golomb heard of the opening at UCSB, he had been waiting for a security clearance for a government job. The clearance was dragging on and on, because Golomb had been born in what was then part of the USSR. Jim Parsons, who was the Berkeley Geography Department Chair, told Golomb about the position and suggested he apply. Both Golomb and McColl had Master of Arts degrees and were given the title "Lecturer." Golomb subsequently received his doctorate, and spent the 1960s building the Geography Program, hoping to become automous as a Department. [1]

The first time Geography appears as its own category in the UCSB General Catalog was for 1964-65. McColl taught Geography 1 Elements of Geography and 120 Political Geography. Golomb taught Geography 2 Introduction to Human Geography and 3 Elements of Physical Geography. Geography 5 Economic Geography was listed, but readers were told it would not be offered this year. However, an Economic and Political Geography course was offered through the Education Abroad Program at Bordeaux, France. The fifth class in the catalog was a 199 Independent Studies in Geography.

Geography, although inaugurated, was not a department. As stated in the General Catalog, "No major is as yet offered in Geography, pending organization of the Department…. The program is under the direction of the Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences." Geography courses were considered "service courses" for social science majors.

According to the catalog, Geography's status was the same the following school year, with Golomb and McColl still the only instructors. The two men, however, were granted the titles of Assistant Professor of Geography. The initial five courses, listed the previous year, were still offered, though Economic Geography moved from lower to upper division. Seven classes were added: Urban Geography, Climatology, Asia, Africa, Latin America, China, and Middle America.

In February of 1966, the Geography Program was allowed to offer a major, and two undergraduate seniors signed up. [2] The first General Catalog to advertise the major was 1966-67. McColl was gone, Ronald Horvath was hired as an Assistant Professor, and John James, who then had an M.A., was hired as an Acting Assistant Professor. Golomb, though not the official Chair (the Dean still retained control), did, according to the sole staff person who worked in Geography at the time, all the work of a Chair.[3] Five classes were added: Weather and Climate, World Regional Geography, California, Man in Nature, and a Seminar in Political Geography. A description of the study of Geography first appears:

"Geographers investigate the surface of the earth as the home of man. The discipline of Geography is focused on a broad range of man-and-environment interactions, and encourages a variety of investigative approaches to problem of the ecology of man. Because of the breadth of integration in the physical, biological and social sciences, undergraduate Geography training provides a basic and useful liberal education. Graduate studies in Geography permit specific training in a number of scholarly and technical fields." (1966-67 General Catalog, Page 171)

The Geography Program at UCSB bloomed in 1967-68. Golomb was still the anchor faculty member. James stayed; Horvath left. Five were added: Yehuda Kedar (Visiting Assistant Professor), Michael Kuhn (Visiting Assistant Professor), Robert Curry (Acting Assistant Professor), Norman Gosenfeld (Lecturer), and Sri Ratnam Swami (Lecturer). One lower division class was added, and 12 upper division. Curry brought expertise in geologic geography courses, James took over climatology and weather. Map and Photo Interpretation was offered for the first time. Kedar taught it.

The following year, the instructors shrank to five. James and Kedar left. Curry became Dr. Curry and was promoted to Assistant Professor. Five more upper division classes were added, four of which made use of Curry's geologic background.

According to the 1969-70 catelog, there were eight instructors, but there was a lot of turnover. Golomb, Kuhn, and Gosenfeld remained. Peter Mason, Norman Sanders, John Estes, and Bernard Riley came aboard. This is the first year Estes taught Air Photo Interpretation.

Sanders, who was from Australia, taught a course on Australiasia and Oceania and one on Environmental Pollution. He was very involved in local environmental issues. He even fought Chancellor Cheadle's effort to bring an entrance road to Storke tower right over the Goleta Slough. According to Golomb, while Sanders' actions gained a lot of student and press support (1969 was the year of the oil platform blowout in the Channel), Chancellor Cheadle became less kindly disposed to Geography. Any chance of gaining self-governance and departmental status from the College of Letters and Science dimmed. [4] Sanders, by the way, has since gained awards from his native Australia, to which he returned and for which he spent time as a legislator, for his contributions to environmental causes. [5]

1969-70 is the first year researchers were listed in the catalog. Sidney Frank was a Research Associate in Meterology; David Kleinecke was a Research Associate in Quantitative Geography.

The following year, 1970-71, John "Jack" Estes began building the air photo and remote sensing business upon which the Department launched five years later. However, the program as a whole shrank. Golomb explained that Reaganomics was having a profound effect on the University as a whole and Geography in particular. [6] Although there were six listed faculty members, only five were present. One of the four listed lower division classes was not offered this year; 16 of the 36 listed upper division classes were not offered.

By 1971-72, Golomb had left. He saw no future since the College of Letters and Science had not granted him tenure and wanted a big name to head the Department that they wished to create. (7) Faculty were down to five, and no researchers were listed. Only three lower division courses were listed and 29 upper division ones, with nine of the upper division courses not offered this school year. Cartography was listed, but not offered.

The following year, according to the 1972-73 catalog, the faculty remained stable. Peter Mason was given the title of Acting Vice Chairman of the program. Only two lower division courses were offered -- a human and a physical geography class. Twenty-eight upper division classes were listed, with eight of those not offered this year. Cartography continued to be listed, but not offered.

Riley had left by 1973-74. Estes, Haiman, Kuhn, Mason, and Sanders were still there. Sydney Frank was again listed as a Research Associate in Meterology. Class listings and offerings remained at the same number as the last year. Biogeography was offered for the first time, taught by Haiman. Biogeography later became its own research lab, affiliated with Geography, then in 2001 moving over to the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management.

The 1974-75 catalog advertised Geography as a department. A blank spot was at the top of the faculty list, with the words "Professor of Geography (Chairman of the Department)" next to it. Only three faculty remained from the previous year: Estes, Mason, and Sanders. Frank continued to be listed as a researcher in meteorology. Arthur Strahler was added as a researcher in Geography and Geology. Cartography was finally offered -- by staff. Cartography later became a fundamental strength of the Department with the coming of Waldo Tobler in 1977. For the first time in several years, all the courses that were listed were actually offered.

David Simonett was hired as Chair July 1, 1974 and was listed as such in the 1975-76 catalog. Other faculty members listed were: Christopher Clayton, Jeffrey Dozier, John Estes, and Alan Strahler. Researchers continued to be Sidney Frank and Arthur Strahler. No lower division courses were offered, but 35 upper division courses were offered. The Department was about to take off in a major growth spurt.

---

Footnotes:

1. Source of personal information about Berl Golomb: personal email from Berl Golomb to Susan Baumgart, 2002.
2. Two Geography majors are in the 1966 yearbook -- yearbooks only listed seniors.
3. Source: personal email from Maggie Day to Susan Baumgart. Maggie, whose last name was Greenwald in the 1960s, was Geography's receptionist.
4. Source: personal email from Berl Golomb to Susan Baumgart, 2002.
5. Source: personal email from Terry Simmons to Susan Baumgart, 2002.
6. Source: personal email from Berl Golomb to Susan Baumgart, 2002.
7. Source: personal email from Berl Golomb to Susan Baumgart, 2002.

--Susan Baumgart (Geography artist, photographer, and webmaster; also a UCSB Geography major in latter 1960s)

UCSB Geography in the 21st Century

Excellence

An essential factor in the UCSB Department of Geography’s rise to national and international fame in the 21st Century was the far sightedness of its early mentors. When the Department began, planning was generally done year to year; now it encompasses strategic, long-range goals which are re-visited and fine tuned during annual faculty retreats. At the January 2001 retreat, the faculty hammered out a new vision which reconfirmed the Department’s emphasis on science and technology, its use of cutting edge GIS and spatio-temporal research, and the expansion of the interdisciplinary nature of Geography:

Vision Statement of the Geography Department

We will build an extraordinary community for creating new knowledge about planet earth and its inhabitants. The Department of Geography aims to be the intellectual home of choice for studies of Earth as the home of humanity. Such studies need to integrate knowledge from a wide range of sciences and, consequently, require two conditions: access to specialists whose collective interests span both human and physical dimensions of the Earth system, and an infrastructure that supports information-rich, computationally-based investigation. Both the specialists and infrastructure are available at UCSB, but Geography aims to achieve a much greater level of creativity by ensuring that they exist in close proximity and by nurturing a population of undergraduate and graduate students who are methodologically equipped to contribute.

We will create new methods and models to advance geographic information science. Studies of the Earth system inevitably require access to vast stores of information - in the form of raw data and of accumulated scholarly knowledge. In collaboration with Computer Science, UCSB's Department of Geography is already at the forefront in the development of technologies and infrastructures that allow such information to be found and accessed across distributed networks. Such studies also require a solid foundation of tools for exploring spatial data and for implementing knowledge of process in computational models. In our vision, we anticipate a steady shift from our current emphasis on the infrastructure for sharing data and tools to a greater emphasis on the sharing of knowledge of dynamics, particularly in the form of computational models. This shift will also require more specialization in the unique properties and problems associated with geographic information and geographic information science.

We will use integrated science to better understand spatio-temporal dynamics. Study of the Earth system also requires access to knowledge of dynamic processes that range from those that operate in the oceans and atmosphere, to migration processes that redistribute humans across the landscape, and to processes of land use change. In our vision, Geography will include specialists in all of the major processes that influence the Earth system at human timescales, and who are committed to integrating their knowledge with others to solve problems. To maximize the value of our studies and to minimize duplication of effort, we are firmly committed to an interdisciplinary collaboration with process specialists in other departments.

The Reign of Keith Clarke

In 2000, Reginald Golledge was elected President of the Association of American Geographers, appointed as a Fellow of the Gilbert Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education at Southwest Texas University, and was awarded the International Geography Gold Medal by the Institute of Australian Geographers. 2001 faculty accolades included Keith Clarke being elected President of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society, Golledge receiving an Honorary LLD from Simon Fraser University (Canada) and an Honorary PhD from Göteborg University (Sweden), Michael Goodchild receiving an Honorary PhD from Keele University (UK), and Jack Estes receiving a posthumous NASA Public Service Medal. Goodchild ended his stint as Department Chair in December of 2000, and Keith Clarke picked up the reins January 2001 and held them firmly for the next five and a half years.

During Clarke’s reign as Chair, seven new faculty were hired in accordance with the Department’s long-range plan (Sara Fabrikant, Christopher Still, Hallie Eakin, Annemarie Schneider, David Carr, Kostas Goulias, and Martin Raubal), the UCSB Administration promised Geography an additional 25,000 square feet of space in Ellison Hall to enable most of the Department to be under one roof, and the External Review Committee concluded that, “In terms of research and scholarship, UCSB Geography can be ranked in the top-tier of research universities both nationally and internationally.” Indeed, the honors kept accumulating. In 2002, Goodchild was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, selected for membership in the Royal Society of Canada, and chosen for the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Educator of the Year Award; Hugo Loaiciga received a 2002 Service to the Profession Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Environmental and Water Resources Institute for his “longstanding contributions to research and technical activities”; Dave Siegel was the lead author in a Science article about the spring bloom of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic; Ray Smith received the Nils Jerlov Award in recognition of his contribution made to the advancement of knowledge of the nature and consequences of light in the ocean; and Golledge received the UCGIS 2002 Research Award, as well as the 2002 Grosvenor Medal for Geographic Education and the Outstanding Leadership Award from Southwest Texas University. To top it off, UCSB Geography faculty averaged $487,000 in extramural funds per faculty member for the year 2002, the most in the Science Division at UCSB and $150,000 over the nearest rival (Physics).

In 2003, Goodchild was selected by peers to give the UCSB Faculty Research Lecture and was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Medal, Clarke was selected as UCGIS Educator of the Year, and Catherine Gautier was awarded the Goddard Space Flight Center’s annual Teamwork Award for her work on the AIRS science team that was part of the Aqua Satellite Project. In 2004, Clarke was elected a Fellow of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping for his contributions to ACSM and the professions of Cartography and GIS, Goodchild received an Honorary LLD from Ryerson University and an Honorary Doctor of Science from McMaster University; and Golledge was elected to serve on the Decade of Behavior's National Advisory Committee. 2004 was also the Department’s 30th anniversary as an autonomous department. To celebrate the event, Clarke commissioned a time capsule that will be opened on the Department’s Centennial in 2074. The anodized aluminum cylinder, 12 inches in diameter and 24 inches long, is buried in the central seating area in the courtyard between Ellison and Buchanan halls and contains historic and contemporary memorabilia commemorating Geography in general and the UCSB Department of Geography in particular.

2005 saw Golledge’s election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Affiliated Faculty Jeff Dozier’s receipt of the William T. Pecora Award, and Clarke’s receipt of the U.S. Geological Survey’s John Wesley Powell Award. Sadly, 2005 was also the year that our Senior Artist and Web Master, Susanna Baumgart, died after a long bout with cancer – as did Professor Leal Mertes, whose interests spanned the dynamics of river channel, floodplain and wetlands interactions; the remote sensing of wetland environments; and the long term evolution of large river systems. To celebrate Leal’s passion for working in the field, the Leal Anne Kerry Mertes Scholarship Award was established to honor her by supporting UCSB students (graduate or undergraduate) who are planning or are engaged in field research.

In 2006, Tommy Dickey was made a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Joel Michaelsen was elected Chair of the UCSB Academic Senate, Golledge was selected as a UCSB Outstanding Graduate Mentor, Goodchild received the Robert T. Aangeenbrug Distinguished Career Award and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Clarke was appointed Chair of the National Academy of Science’s Mapping Sciences Committee and received the UK Leverhulme Trust award as well as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholarship.

Sustainability and the Department of Geography

In 2004, Mo Lovegreen was hired as the Executive Officer for Geography, only the second manager ever employed by the Department - she replaced Meryl Wieder who retired after 36 years of service to UCSB, 25 of which were as the MSO of the Department of Geography. When Mo became the CEO of the Department, she did so with the proviso that part of her time would be dedicated to the UCSB Sustainability Efforts to which she was and remains deeply committed. As a result, the Department of Geography became one of the physical homes for sustainability work on campus, and funding for a portion of Lovegreen’s work in sustainability was provided by the Department. In 2005, Chancellor Henry Yang asked the Campus Planning Committee to create a sub-committee to create a comprehensive sustainability plan for the campus. Lovegreen was appointed to the sub-committee along with a small group of administrators, faculty, and students.  A group of approximately 75 individual “change agents” comprised of students, staff, and faculty were trained in the sustainability framework known as The Natural Step in fall 2005. These individuals collaborated with campus sustainability staff to produce the Campus Sustainability Plan and the following mission statement: “The University of California, Santa Barbara is committed to global leadership for sustainability through education, research, and action.” The process has brought together students, staff, faculty, and community members, it has generated a great deal of energy and momentum, and it has fundamentally increased awareness of UCSB’s sustainability potential and the steps necessary to achieve this goal. The journal Science featured UCSB’s Sustainability Program in 2007, focusing on the campus program known as Laboratory Assessments for Research Sustainability (LARS) and its Laboratory Research and Technical Staff (LabRATS) network which was co-founded by Katie Maynard, a “change agent” and campus sustainability coordinator who works out of the Department of Geography, and Allen Doyle, the lab manager in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology. The Department of Geography is proud to provide a physical home for the Sustainability Program, and it was doubly honored to receive the top Green Award from the UCSB Associated Students Recycling Program in 2007. In a recent waste audit, the occupants of Ellison Hall recycled 88.76% of the waste stream with a pilot recycling program developed by the Ellison Hall Sustainability Committee. The high diversion rate was in large part due to Katie Maynard and her Ellison Hall Sustainability Interns who ensured that the recyclables from the bins were collected on a regular basis and taken out to the proper recycle dumpster.

A Changing of the Guard

The dizzying flood of honors and accolades received by Geography faculty continued under the direction of Oliver Chadwick who became the Department Chair in July 2006. Keith Clarke was appointed to the National Geographic Committee on Research and Exploration later in 2006, Dar Roberts’ research on the use of remote sensing to estimate live fuel moisture in California shrublands was featured by NASA and the BBC, and Ray Smith received the R. J. Russell Award about the same time. In 2007, Chadwick was selected as a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, Golledge received the Lifetime Achievement Honors of the Association of American Geographers, David Siegel received the Editor’s Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the American Geophysical Union, and Goodchild received the Geospatial Information and Technology Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the Vautrin Lud International Geography Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of Geography.

Several of our faculty were involved in major publications during this period. For example, Waldo Tobler coauthored a book on map projection transformation in 2000; Clarke co-edited a book on GIS and environmental modeling in 2002; Ray Smith co-edited a book on climate variability and ecosystem response in 2003, and Clarke brought out his fourth edition of Getting Started with Geographic Information Systems in the same year. Goodchild coauthored the second edition of Geographic Information Systems and Science, and Chadwick coauthored an article in Nature dealing with biological control of terrestrial silica cycling and export fluxes to watersheds in 2005; and, in 2006, Hallie Eakin published a book on climatic, institutional, and economic change in rural Mexico and Dan Montello coauthored a book on the conduct and interpretation of scientific research in geography. In 2007 Chris Still coauthored an article on amphibian extinction in Nature, Catherine Gautier co-edited a book on understanding global warming, Tommy Dickey coauthored an article about the relation between mesoscale eddies and silica export in Science, and David Siegel coauthored an article about climate warming reducing the ocean food supply in Nature. In 2008, Chris Funk, of our Climate Hazards Group, coauthored an article in Science indicating that food insecurity will increase with climate change unless early warning systems and aid programs are used more effectively, Kostas Goulias became the coeditor of a new journal in the field of Transportation Research, and Golledge coauthored a book on comprehending and conducting person-environment-behavior research.

But You Can’t Live on Applause

Despite, or because of, the kudos, the Department had mixed reactions when The Chronicle of Higher Education published its “Top Research Universities Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index” for 2007 and UCSB Geography wound up as # 2 in the nation – even though it hadn’t been ranked at all in 2006! Whatever the ranking, the Department continued to face serious challenges in terms of space and operating budget. In 1998, the External Review Committee for the Program Review Panel had concluded that the shortage and fragmentation of physical space was so extreme that it demanded immediate attention. While the university administration agreed to give the resolution of Geography’s space problems a high priority, it wasn’t until 2003 that some of the space issues began to be addressed. Through the generosity of alumnus Mike McComsey and his wife Vilma, a nicely outfitted conference room was created on the fifth floor of Ellison as a hub for departmental activities. However, as of 2007, the department remained physically fragmented, resulting in less than ideal interaction among faculty and public confusion about departmental membership. Faculty, students, and staff were housed in seven buildings scattered across the campus (Marine Science, Bren Hall, Trailer 942, Phelps Hall, Ellison Hall, Chemistry, and the Cloud Lab) and also rented facilities off-campus for the Ocean Physics Laboratory. The long range solution to the Department’s space problem revolved around moving the entire department to Phelps Hall, where it could be under one roof – a move projected in 2007 to take about 3 years. To this end, the Department of Geography administrative offices moved to the first floor (southeast wing) of Ellison Hall in 2007 as a preliminary step to moving to Phelps Hall once it was renovated. But, as the 2007 External Review Committee for the Program Review Panel pointed out, “In view of the long history of geography’s space problem and the many proposed solutions over the years, many geography faculty are justifiably skeptical that the Phelps solution will materialize within the next three years. Significant delay would be highly detrimental to the continued health of the department.” By the end of 2007, it was guesstimated that the move to Phelps would take at least another 5 years - and the 2008 California budget crisis made even that prediction seem optimistic.

Geography Is Spatially Challenged

The discipline of Geography is, ultimately, the study of “space.” Ironically, the Department’s physical spatial challenge was addressed, albeit not redressed, in 2007 when Goodchild, considered the father of Geographical Information Science, received major funding to establish a new center, spatial@ucsb. The center’s mission is to facilitate the integration of spatial thinking into processes for learning and discovery in the natural, social, and behavioral sciences, to promote excellence in engineering and applied sciences, and to enhance creativity in the arts and humanities. The Center is an extension of the Department’s core concept as spelled out in the Vision Statement. Like its predecessor, the National Center for Geographic Information & Analysis, spatial@ucsb is dedicated to geographical information analysis – but it goes far beyond that by striving to become a cross-disciplinary center dedicated to the comprehension, utilization, and implementation of spatial thinking and reasoning in both everyday and academic life. In essence, the discipline of Geography at UCSB mirrors spatial@ucsb insofar as it has become the multidiscipline of Spatial Analysis in the 21st Century.

2008 On: The Five Year Plan

In 2008, the Department’s five year plan anticipated growth from 23 full time equivalent (FTE) faculty to 27 by 2009-2010. The Department's enrollment target was to sustain ratios of 4.0 graduate students per FTE and 10.0 majors in residence per FTE. Thus, this five-year plan anticipated growth to a stable faculty of 27 FTE and a graduate program with 108 students by 2010-11 (in 2008, there were 88, including those in the joint program with San Diego State). For undergraduate students, the 2010-2011 target was 270. According to the plan, the Department of Geography “hopes to (1) enlarge the graduate program in proportion to our faculty FTE, (2) substantially build our undergraduate major, and (3) play a somewhat larger service role on campus, with the goal of exposing lower division students to innovative and attractive classes that advance the modern view of our discipline.”

The previous five years saw a steady decline in the Department’s funds used to support instructors, a situation unlikely to improve, given the 2008 California budget deficit. In recognition of the difficult situation on campus, the Department began evaluating the undergraduate curriculum in order to minimize the number of courses that are required and therefore need to be offered multiple times during the year. In this way, the Department hoped to ensure maximum flexibility in responding to the needs of students and inevitable short falls in available faculty to cover those courses. In addition, the Department reinstituted a policy that had fallen out of use over the past decade, i.e., to make it a requirement for each faculty member to participate in teaching a high-enrollment undergraduate course. The evaluation also sought to ensure the maximum number of students per course without sacrificing the interactivity of students and faculty/TAs at the upper division level.

More Department History