UCSB began as a small land grant teachers’ college that was chartered in 1868. In 1944, it became a campus of the University of California and, due to space limitations, split into two physical campuses—one on the Santa Barbara Riviera (now the Riviera Movie Theater and grounds) and one on the site of today’s Santa Barbara City College. In 1954, UCSB consolidated by moving to its present site which, at the time, was an ex-WWII Marine base. The original “Geography Program” was spatially challenged from the beginning. It was located in a “temporary building”—a two story wood frame bungalow opposite the Department of Geology— with Geography downstairs, an anatomy laboratory upstairs, and a picnic table outdoors that served as an impromptu “conference room.” Building 406 still exists but has been extensively remodeled and currently houses the Equal Opportunity Program and the Chicano/Latino Cultural Center.
Geography moved to Ellison Hall in 1969 but had to share the building with other departments who were already there. Lack of contiguous space forced Geography to overflow into two other buildings on campus and one off campus. In 1998, the External Review Committee for the Program Review Panel 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 was 2003 before the Department even got a Conference Room, and then only because the repair and refurbishment of the 5th floor room was funded partially by a gift from alumnus Mike McComsey and his wife Vilma.
The Department continues to have inadequate space to support its teaching mission. Wet chemistry teaching labs are non-existent, faculty have been forced to cut back on their lab classes, computer instruction is in dire need of space, and the department desperately needs better equipped teaching space with IT access. Worst still, the department is physically fragmented, resulting in less than ideal interaction among faculty and public confusion about departmental membership. The long range solution to the Department’s space problem revolves around moving the entire department to Phelps Hall, where it can be under one roof, in the next 3 years. To this end, the Department of Geography administrative offices have moved to the first floor (southeast wing) of Ellison Hall as a preliminary step to moving to Phelps Hall once it is renovated. However, judging from the past, such an ideal acquisition of place and space may take much longer than hoped for, if it happens at all. As the External Review Committee for our recent PRP 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.” Let us hope that the university administration addresses this critical issue.
(Editor’s note: much of the above was taken from Susanna Baumgart’s history of the Department at http://archive.geog.ucsb.edu/more/history_articles/history_saga_chapter01.htm)
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