The history of the UCSB Department of Geography is a remarkable success story that reads like a best selling “rags to riches” potboiler novel. “In the 1960s, Geography at UCSB had neither Department status nor autonomy…Despite a bloom in numbers and offerings, the program nearly completely collapsed…Those early days were exciting times. Geography was brand new. The man at the helm, Simonett, had the vision, firepower, persistence, and generosity of spirit to alchemize talented individuals into one of the most prestigious Geography departments of the United States.” That’s how Susanna Baumgart paraphrases the department’s origin in her introduction to “Department History – A Lively Chronicle: 1963-2000” on our web site at https://legacy.geog.ucsb.edu/history/.
Susanna, our Senior Artist, photographer, and web master from 1998 to 2005, worked closely with Professor Keith Clarke to document and compile the departmental history. As Keith explains, “During the Geography department’s 30th anniversary celebration in 2004, Susanna Baumgart and I were working on revising the UCSB Geography web site and got the notion of copying the AAG’s Geography time line, but just for the department. Susanna took the project to heart and did an excellent job doing interviews, compiling material, and organizing the site. At the same time, I felt it important to document the brief history in a more formal paper, and the two of us wrote the article which appeared in the Pacific Coast Geographers Yearbook (Clarke, K. C., & Baumgart, S. [2004]. The Department of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara: History, curriculum, and pedagogy. In Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers [pp. 95-113]: University of Hawai’i Press. PDF here). I feel that the two accomplishments were a testimonial to Susanna’s active departmental life and generous spirit, and, after her death, I am reminded of her joyful nature and ever-present smile whenever I visit the site or see a citation to the paper.”
Keith had occasion to talk to Chancellor Henry Yang about the department’s meteoric rise to fame during this year’s graduate reception, and the Chancellor not only read the links that Keith provided, but went on to say:
Dear Keith: Thank you so much for sending me the links to the two documents, “Department History – A Lively Chronicle: 1963-2000” and “The Department of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara: History, Curriculum, and Pedagogy.” It has been fascinating and inspiring to read of the 30-year history of the Department of Geography from the unique perspective in which you present the development of our Department of Geography into a world-renowned resource and center of excellence. It is an incredible story of success—from the carefully strategic hiring of key faculty with common missions in research and teaching, to the highly interdisciplinary and integrative approach in curriculum and the emphasis on GIS and remote sensing as the centerpieces for the continued evolution of the department, to the importance placed on the integration of analytical methods within the larger background of a strong scientific approach to research and teaching. You are rightly proud to postulate that what has been achieved over the department’s 30-year history since 1974 may prove instructive for other universities and for the discipline as a whole. I appreciate the effort you and our colleagues have put into this thoughtful analysis. Please share my delight in all these accomplishments with all our Geography faculty, staff, and students, and please accept my best wishes for continued success for the entire department. Sincerely, Henry T. Yang, Chancellor.
The conclusion of the Clarke & Baumgart article stated: “From rather simple origins, the Department of Geography at the University of California Santa Barbara has risen from a simple program, teaching geography to teachers, to one of the foremost graduate and research institutions in the discipline in the United States. Central to this rise to prominence has been a strong central vision for the program, strategic recruiting of faculty around that vision, response to leading emerging themes within the discipline, a persistent view of geography as science, and a high level of integration with other disciplines that study the earth and its inhabitants. This has led to a program that is integrative across the curriculum, and has largely dissolved the artificial human-physical divide that is so common in geography departments worldwide.” While Chancellor Yang lauds the development of our Department of Geography into “a world-renowned resource and center of excellence,” we can’t live on praise. Tell the Regents to send money.
Article by Bill Norrington
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