UC Santa Cruz campus is the envy of those who love nature. Set among the redwoods, the State University which was founded in 1965 st outside town, in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains.[7] The Santa Cruz site was selected over a competing proposal to build the campus closer to the population center of San Jose. Santa Cruz was selected for the beauty, rather than the practicality, of its location, however, and its remoteness led to the decision to develop a residential college system that would house most of the students on-campus.[8] The formal design process of the Santa Cruz campus began in the late 1950s, culminating in the Long Range Development Plan of 1963.[9] Construction had started by 1964, and the University was able to accommodate its first students (albeit living in trailers on what is now the East Field athletic area) in 1965. The campus was intended to be a showcase for contemporary architecture, progressive teaching methods, and undergraduate research.[10][11][12] According to founding chancellor Dean McHenry, the purpose of the distributed college system was to combine the benefits of a major research university with the intimacy of a smaller college.[13][14] UC President Clark Kerr shared a passion with former Stanford roommate McHenry to build a university modeled as "several Swarthmores" (i.e., small liberal arts colleges) in close proximity to each other.[13][15] Roads on campus were named after UC Regents who voted in favor of building the campus.The 2,000-acre (810 ha) UCSC campus is located 75 miles (121 km) south of San Francisco, in the Ben Lomond Mountain ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Elevation varies from 285 feet (87 m) at the campus entrance to 1,195 feet (364 m) at the northern boundary, a difference of about 900 feet (270 m). The southern portion of the campus primarily consists of a large, open meadow, locally known as the Great Meadow. To the north of the meadow lie most of the campus' buildings, many of them among redwood groves. The campus is bounded on the south by the city's upper-west-side neighborhoods, on the east by Harvey West Park[25] and the Pogonip open space preserve,[26] on the north by Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park[27] near the town of Felton, and on the west by Gray Whale Ranch, a portion of Wilder Ranch State Park.[28] The campus is built on a portion of the Cowell Family ranch, which was purchased by the University of California in 1961.[29] The northern half of the campus property has remained in its undeveloped, forested state apart from fire roads and hiking and bicycle trails. The heavily forested area has allowed UC Santa Cruz to operate a recreational vehicle park as a form of student housing.[30] Bridge across ravine. A number of shrines, dens and other student-built curiosities are scattered around the northern campus. These structures, mostly assembled from branches and other forest detritus, were formerly concentrated in the area known as Elfland, a glen the University razed in 1992 to build colleges Nine and Ten. Students were able to relocate and save some of the structures, however.[31][32] Creeks traverse the UCSC campus within several ravines. Footbridges span those ravines on pedestrian paths linking various areas of campus. The footbridges make it possible to walk to any part of campus within 20 minutes in spite of the campus being built on a mountainside with varying elevations.[33] At night, orange lights illuminate the occasionally fogged-in paths.[34] There are a number of natural points of interest throughout the UCSC grounds. The "Porter Caves" are a popular site among students on the west side of campus. The entrance is located in the forest between the Porter College meadow and Empire Grade Road. The caves wind through a set of caverns, some of which are challenging, narrow passages. Tree Nine is another popular destination for students. A large Douglas Fir spanning approximately 103 feet (31 m) tall, Tree Nine is located in the upper campus of UCSC behind College Nine. The tree had been a popular climbing spot for many years but due to environmental corrosion and fear of student injuries, UC ground services sawed off the limbs to make it nearly impossible to climb.[35] For specific directions, reference: directions to Tree Nine For the less experienced tree-climber, students also frequent Sunset Tree located on the east side of the meadow behind the UCSC Music Center.[36] The UCSC campus is also one of the few homes to Mima Mounds in the United States. They are extremely rare in the United States and in the world in general.The university offers 63 undergraduate majors and 35 minors, with graduate programs in 33 fields.[37] Popular undergraduate majors include Art, Business Management Economics, Molecular and Cell Biology, and Psychology.[38] Interdisciplinary programs, such as Feminist Studies, American Studies, Environmental Studies, Visual Studies, Digital Arts and New Media, and the unique History of Consciousness Department are also hosted alongside UCSC's more traditional academic departments. A new joint program, the first of its kind in the University of California system, enables UC Santa Cruz students to earn a bachelor's degree and law degree in six years instead of the usual seven. The 3+3 BA/JD” Program between UC Santa Cruz and UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco accepted its first applicants in Fall 2014.[39] UCSC students who declare their intent in their freshman or early sophomore year will complete three years at UCSC and then move on to UC Hastings to begin the three-year law curriculum. Credits from the first year of law school will count toward a student's bachelor's degree. Students who successfully complete the first-year law course work will receive their bachelor's degree and be able to graduate with their UCSC class, then continue at UC Hastings for the final two years of law study. Organic farm rows Baskin Engineering Plaza Research[edit] According to the National Science Foundation, UC Santa Cruz spent $155.5 million on research and development in 2012, ranking it 120th in the nation.[40] Although designed as a liberal arts-oriented university, UCSC quickly acquired a graduate-level natural science research component with the appointment of plant physiologist Kenneth V. Thimann as the first provost of Crown College. Thimann developed UCSC's early Division of Natural Sciences and recruited other well-known science faculty and graduate students to the fledgling campus.[41] Immediately upon its founding, UCSC was also granted administrative responsibility for the Lick Observatory, which established the campus as a major center for astronomy research.[42] Founding members of the Social Science and Humanities faculty created the unique History of Consciousness graduate program in UCSC's first year of operation.[43] Famous former UCSC faculty members include Judith Butler and Angela Davis. UCSC's organic farm and garden program is the oldest in the country, and pioneered organic horticulture techniques internationally.[44][45]