UC Riverside, also known as UCR, is a public research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on 1,900 acres (769 ha) in a suburban district of Riverside with a branch campus of 20 acres (8 ha) in Palm Desert. Founded in 1907 as the Citrus Experiment Station, UC Riverside conducts research and provides higher education in agriculture, natural resources, and related sciences. It offers bachelor’s degrees, graduate degrees, and doctoral degrees through five schools and four colleges: Agricultural Sciences; Arts & Humanities; Business & Economics; Education; Engineering & Computer Science; Natural Sciences & Mathematics; Social Sciences; and Interdisciplinary Studies.
As of Fall 2019, UCR enrolled 24,023 students consisting primarily of “first-generation college students” from Southern California. Students hail from across the Inland Empire region including nearby cities such as Moreno Valley (12%), Ontario (11%), Corona (9%), Jurupa Valley (6%), and Hemet (5%). 62% are Hispanic or Latino while 11% are Asian American. There are also African American (4%), White American (3%), Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (0.3%) students enrolled at UCR. The first classes were held October 4–5 after 37 faculty members were hired for an initial teaching staff of 128 students offering 28 courses in four subject areas: Agriculture, Chemistry/Biology/Geology/Physics (“C”), English/Foreign Languages (“E”), and Mathematics/Engineering (“M”).
At the time citrus fruits were widely grown in Southern California and experiment station work focused on improving their quality and yield by studying fertilizer composition, irrigation methods, rootstocks , grafting techniques , fruit thinning practices , winter protection methods , harvest maturity indices , storage conditions , transportation requirements , marketing strategies , insect pests , diseases , weed control measures . Early research also included studies on soil salinity levels caused by irrigation with water imported via aqueducts from northern watersheds .
The Carnegie Institution for Science announced plans to establish an observatory near UC Riverside in 1905 which led to the formation of the Department of Astronomy two years later under John Custer De Vore who brought two telescopes to campus including a 12-inch refractor telescope which was used for public viewing nights until it was damaged by vandals in 1969 . Other early astronomical research at UC Riverside includes photometry studies conducted by Horace Wetherill during World War II which helped develop anti-aircraft defense systems . In more recent years astronomers have utilized data collected from space-based telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope to study star formation rates within galaxies .