As a previous Highlander Orientation Leader for the University of California, Riverside, I have discovered some cool facts about the campus and its history that are worth sharing! Keep reading for 20 things every student at UCR should know.
The School of Medicine was the first public medical school to open in the last forty years! In order to have UCR students continue their services within the Inland Empire, the Thomas Haider Program grants twenty-four of their fifty seats to students who finished their undergraduate education at UCR.
UCR is home to four distinctive colleges: College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS), College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (CNAS), Bourns College of Engineering (BCOE), and School of Business Administration (SOBA). Those who are students of SOBA complete their breadth classes as a CHASS student and then work their way up to SOBA!
Located at the center of campus is the Carillon Belltower. Here, there are a variety of events going on, whether organizations tabling, Greek Life socializing, live student concerts, giveaways, and much more! If you wear sport your UCR gear that day in front of the Student Life booth, you might receive a prize for showing off the colors of our tartan (you’ll learn about tartan during orientation)!
Professor David Kisailus is known for his studies with the mantis shrimp. They’re actually one of my favorite creatures. Kisailus works with the mantis shrimps’ strength to produce new material that will be implemented into military armor and vehicles.
You do not have to be a graduate student to be taking classes offered by the GSOE! In addition to their degree programs, UCR offers an education minor to their undergraduate students who are interested in exploring and pursuing a future within education.
UCR houses thirteen solar powered benches around campus. Although they are mainly located around The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, there are some more isolated and hidden spots on campus. I’ll leave it to you to find them all, but these benches really saved me a lot of time from finding an open outlet inside buildings!
If you venture into the Tomás Rivera Library’s top floor, you will find the Special Collections and University Achieves section. Did you know that UCR’s Eaton Collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Utopian Literature is also located here? “The collection begins with the 1517 edition of Thomas More’s Utopia and includes first editions of many seminal works including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (1895).”
In the Box Springs Mountains, there is a trail that leads hikers up to the infamous 132 feet high, 70 feet wide letter “C” that is located in the heart of the mountains. Every UC campus has a “C” located somewhere on their campus, so why not have ours located somewhere that can be spot anywhere around the general area of the university? It has been rumored that if you kiss the “C” the beginning of fall quarter your first-year, you’ll get a 4.0, but that’s a rumor, not fact. You also get a pretty amazing view if you’re going around sunset!
We start off the year right with our annual Block Party, exclusive for UCR students only. Throughout the year, we also have Winter Soulstice, Heat, and Spring Splash (but I’m not sure if Heat’s actually gone for good)! We’ve had some sick acts such as Chance the Rapper, Panic! At The Disco, 3LAU, Giraffage, Walk The Moon, Pusha T, DJ Mustard, Sage the Gemini, Jeremih, Neon Indian, GTA, Trey Songz, DJ Snake, Ty Dolla $ign, and RL Grime in the past two years. Who will we see this school year?
Who would have thought that UCR would be founded as a Citrus Experiment Station? The university started as a liberal arts college, but soon became the university that we know today.
The well-known Scotty the Highlander Bear has his own statue on campus, but did you know that he was not our first school mascot? Lady Mac Tavish aka Buttons the Scottish Terrier was! Before Scotty, Buttons attended every basketball game of 1955 to 1959.
When first creating Scotty, his first few years looked completely different to how he looks today.
Not only do we play movies here, but we also host concerts and plays! Fun fact: this was the first location to play Gone With The Wind!
I’m dead serious on this. Ten weeks at UCR can quickly fly by if you are not noticing it. One week you’ll be alright and catching up, but the next will be midterms! Professors usually assign midterms starting week three, and some don’t even finish their last round of testing until week ten. Finals week is also known as week eleven, so be prepared if this will be your first time experiencing the quarter system. And yes, someone did bring a tent to the library.
Why not celebrate our mascot’s birthday with FREE CUPCAKES and PHOTOBOOTH?
That’s right! You don’t have to pay for your pages of printing! Each quarter, students are granted 200 pages of free printing in Watkins Hall and Sproul Hall. In addition, if you stop by any of the offices in Costo Hall, you can also get more pages of printing (there’s usually a two to eight page limit per space daily there). In addition, if you live in Lothian, Pentland Hills, Aberdeen-Inverness, or Glen Mor, you also get $12 of free printing for the school year! Each page is roughly $0.02-0.03!
It’s honestly no joke. People are dead serious about getting their food. I would suggest getting to the HUB about ten or so minutes before the rush actually begins, because once you’re stuck in the line, you’ll be there for a good twenty or so minutes. So avoid the lines as much as you can! There’s lesser populated dining locations on campus, so you’d just have to find what works with you!
If you venture down to the ground level of the HUB, you should find the information desk! There, you can borrow a portable charger or latptop for the range of two hours. All you’ll need is your R’Card and you’re good to go! If you are returning the product after the information desk is closed, you can drop it off at the information desk of Latitude 55!
If you wander around campus in the late hours or early mornings, you might be able to spot some cats around campus! My favorites are the ones around Winston Chung, but if you’d like to see some cats during the day, some are found lounging around Lothian’s outer dining location!
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