You know about UCSC’s mascot—the slow, humble, neon-yellow banana slug, a choice at once both eccentric and defiant.

You might know about the exceptional astronomy program and the intimate feeling within the campus’s individual colleges. You probably have a favorite secret spot deep in the redwoods, or maybe you know UCSC’s 25-plus miles of hiking and jogging trails like the back of your hand.

But we suspect there are things you don’t know about the 2,000-acre campus nestled in the rolling hills above the Monterey Bay.

You may not know how a goat changed campus policy, that one of the country’s best-selling romance novelists went to school at UCSC, or that we were the first to assemble the DNA sequence of the human genome.

In honor of the campus’s upcoming 50th year—classes started in the fall of 1965—here are 50 things we bet you didn’t know about UC Santa Cruz. We think many of them will surprise and delight you—and maybe even inspire you to send us a few of your own. Email us at 50years@ucsc.edu

Contrary to popular opinion

  1. Despite its well-earned reputation in the sciences, the 10 most popular undergraduate degrees last year were psychology; business management economics; literature; politics; sociology; history; anthropology; molecular, cell, and developmental biology; environmental studies; and ecology and evolutionary biology.
  2. UCSC’s history of using narrative evaluations has led many to think the campus has never issued grades. In fact, faculty voted in 2001 to issue grades in every class—in addition to the distinctive narrative system.

  3. Despite a budget that is about half the size of similar schools, UCSC’s athletics program counted 11 national championships, 24 individual national championships, and 31 NCAA final four appearances. Not only that, but student-athletes currently maintain a 3.10 grade point average.

    Nurturing brainiacs

  4. Linguistics professor Beth Ann Hockey led the Clarissa Project at NASA, which developed the first spoken dialogue system ever used in space. The technology allows astronauts to have their hands and eyes free to concentrate on completing tasks in zero gravity.

  5. In 1984, three UCSC cosmologists and a British astronomer published their theory of Cold Dark Matter, which explained the existence of an invisible form of matter. Today, their theory is the basis for the modern picture of structure formation in the universe. The scientists were the UK’s Astronomer Royal Martin Rees, Joel Primack, Sandra Faber, and the campus’s current chancellor, George Blumenthal.
  6. UCSC physicists and astronomers are among the most respected in the world. Astronomer Sandra Faber received the National Medal of Science from President Obama in 2013, and UCSC has been ranked first in the country for research impact in physics and astronomy based on how often published papers are cited by other researchers.
  7. UCSC astronomer Jerry Nelson developed the revolutionary segmented-mirror design for the powerful twin Keck Telescopes in Hawaii. Now, Nelson is working on an even bigger telescope, one that will allow astronomers to look back in time to when the first stars and galaxies were forming.
  8. In 2000, UCSC researchers were the first to assemble the DNA sequence of the human genome and make it publicly available. Today, thousands of biomedical researchers worldwide use UCSC’s Genome Browser in their work to uncover the causes of diseases and develop treatments.
  9. Doctors might one day be able to identify genetic changes that drive each patient’s cancer cells and use that information to find targeted treatments. To reach this goal, researchers are using the Cancer Genomics Hub, built by a UCSC team to tackle the significant computational challenges posed by storing, serving, and interpreting cancer genomics data.
  10. Medical robotics expert Jacob Rosen is testing a wearable robotic “exoskeleton” for use in stroke rehabilitation and physical therapy, and his lab built a set of seven advanced robotic surgery systems that are being used in collaborative studies with major medical research laboratories throughout the United States.
  11. Studying how the Weddell seal can hold its breath for as long as 90 minutes under the Antarctic sea ice may have implications for understanding stroke and aging in humans. A study led by professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Terrie Williams is looking at how these seals protect themselves from the effects of low levels of oxygen.
  12. UCSC has garnered $24.8 million in funding for its stem cell research center, which is doing studies that have the potential to help treat stroke, spinal cord injuries, neurodegenerative diseases, and certain heart diseases and cancers.

  13. Steve Vogt, planet hunter and a professor of astronomy and astrophysics, may be the person to thank one day for discovering habitable Earth-like worlds around the nearest stars. Vogt has built precision instruments and used telescopes at UC’s Lick and Keck Observatories to find new planets outside our solar system.

    Alumni aim high

  14. Five UCSC alumni have won Pulitzer Prizes. Washington Post reporter Dana Priest won in 2006 and 2008 for reporting on the government’s “black site” prisons and the mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Hector Tobar, a Los Angeles Times reporter, won in 1992 for coverage of the L.A. riots; Laurie Garrett won in 1996 for her reporting on the Ebola virus outbreak in Zaire; Annie Wells won in 1997 for her photo of a California flood victim; and Associated Press writer Martha Mendoza won in 2000 for an investigative story about the massacre of South Korean refugees by the U.S. military during the Korean War.

  15. More than 760 UCSC alumni have heeded the call to work in developing countries for the Peace Corps, putting UCSC 17th in ranking among schools its size for the number of alumni who have served.
  16. One of the country’s most prolific writers is an alumna. Best-selling romance novelist Jayne Ann Krentz (Stevenson ‘70), who also writes under the names Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle, has over 35 million copies of her books in print. She even included the work of one of her favorite professors, G. William Domhoff, in her 2004 novel Falling Awake.
  17. Also alumnae are NPR’s famous duo, the Kitchen Sisters—Nikki Silva (Porter ‘73) and Davia Nelson (Stevenson '75). Over the years, the two women have attracted devoted listeners to several series, including Lost & Found Sound, Hidden Kitchens, and the Sonic Memorial Project.

  18. Famed actress Maya Rudolph, a former cast member of Saturday Night Live who later became known for her lead role in the movie Bridesmaids, was a 1995 graduate of Porter College.

  19. Prior to joining the spotlight as an actor and Saturday Night Live cast member, Andy Samberg worked as a ticket-taker at the Del Mar Theater while attending his first two years of college at UCSC.

  20. Two UCSC alums are in NASA’s Astronaut Hall of Fame: Kathryn Sullivan (Cowell ‘73), the first American woman to walk in space; and Steven Hawley (Ph.D. '77), whose five space shuttle flights included the 1990 mission to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope.

  21. Who’d’ve thought chain-smoking, hard-drinking ‘60s ad men would have a connection to UCSC, but Kevin Beggs (Porter '89), president of Lionsgate Television Group, helped launch the award-winning AMC hit show Mad Men, along with many other drama series.

    Legend has it

  22. UCSC’s famous banana slug mascot almost didn’t survive the ‘80s. Back when the university joined the NCAA, the chancellor changed the campus mascot to the sea lion in a bid for more cachet. In 1986, an overwhelming pro-slug vote by students persuaded the chancellor to make the lowly but beloved Banana Slug UCSC’s official mascot.

  23. When the UC Regents were considering a site for a new Central Coast campus, the story goes, they considered possible locations in the Almaden Valley in Santa Clara County as well as Santa Cruz. But coming over the Santa Cruz Mountains on a blistering summer day, they felt the cool ocean breezes and picked the Cowell Ranch property.
  24. UCSC has a long history of protests, but one had an especially ignominious ending. A protest over People’s Park in Berkeley had brought a camp-in to the lawn of UCSC’s University House, and administrators had spent hours in negotiations, finally persuading campers to leave. But as protesters packed up, then-Chancellor Dean McHenry decided to take matters into his own hands and turned the sprinklers on the protesters. Needless to say, negotiators were quickly back at square one.
  25. The reason dogs aren’t allowed on campus is due, in part, to a goat named Samantha. Samantha, who had become besotted with a police horse named Sam and was its constant companion, was killed by a dog whose owner had brought it to campus for a run. The campus was already considering a no-dog policy, but Samantha’s 1978 death was the last straw. You can still see Samantha’s gravestone on a hill on the left side of Coolidge Drive.
  26. Over the years, reports of ghostly apparitions on a fire road below Cowell College have prompted the area to be named Haunted Meadow. The spine-tingling moniker was prompted by the May 14, 1903, death of Sarah Agnes Cowell, who was thrown from a buggy after her horse bolted, and although the exact location of the accident is debated, the name stuck.
  27. Humans first arrived on what is now the campus 12,000–16,000 years ago.
  28. Within the campus boundaries are at least 50 sinkholes, dozens of springs, a number of creeks that stop abruptly and disappear underground, and two small caves. This type of topography, called karst, is common in some parts of the world but rare in the western United States.

  29. A statue of a sea lion—once UCSC’s short-lived campus mascot contender—stands proudly outside Thimann Lecture Hall. And yet there is no statue of the mighty Banana Slug—the mascot that supplanted the sea lion—anywhere on campus.

    Really special collections

  30. The largest holding of Edward Weston photographs in the country is in the University Library’s Special Collections Department. Over the years, the library has lent a number of the influential Central Coast photographer’s 900 project prints to institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Art.

  31. Students, scholars, and fans interested in cultural history, the ‘60s, art, and music can now check out the UCSC Grateful Dead Archive’s new dedicated exhibition space, Dead Central, at McHenry Library. The iconic American band officially donated its archives to the campus in 2008.
  32. When avant-garde composer John Cage wasn’t creating music, he was hunting for mushrooms. The celebrated composer’s entire mycological collection, including field guides and a mushroom tie he wore, is held by the University Library’s Special Collections Department.

  33. A lot of what happens in UCSC’s science and engineering departments may seem like science fiction. But if you’re looking for real science fiction, you’ll find some of the most famous works of the genre archived at McHenry Library. Hugo Award–winning science fiction writer Robert Heinlein—author of Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, and other classics—lived in Santa Cruz for two decades and was one of the first “friends” of McHenry Library. The author’s complete archive, including original manuscripts, is available at UCSC’s Special Collections.

    Fascinating factoids

  34. In 1986, UCSC’s John Saintignon was named the NCAA’s lead scorer for collegebasketball, beating out bigger and better-known players like UCLA’s Reggie Miller. Saintignon is the only UCSC player before or since to hold the title.

  35. UCSC Dining serves around 25,000 meals on a peak day.
  36. More than 88,000 degrees have been awarded at UC Santa Cruz since its first graduating class in 1967. More than half of those degrees have been awarded in the past 15 years, and 20 percent in just the past 5 years.
  37. Nearly 45 percent of the students admitted in the 2012 freshman class would be in the first generation of their families to graduate from a four-year university.
  38. The UCSC campus is home to more than 500 plant species, an extraordinary level of diversity on its 2,000 acres.
  39. UCSC started a very popular computer game design major in 2006, the first of its kind in the UC system. Today, UCSC’s graduate programs in game design are among the top 10 in the country, according to the Princeton Review.
  40. UCSC athletic teams have taunted opposing teams by wearing T-shirts with the slogan, “Banana Slugs—No Known Predators.” But that’s not exactly true. On campus, known predators include California giant salamanders, garter snakes, shrews, and raccoons. Even humans have been known to eat banana slugs, in emergencies.
  41. On chilly days, it’s hard not to curse Santa Cruz’s marine layer. However, the cool marine air brings the fog, which feeds the redwoods and moistens the banana slugs.
  42. The UCSC Arboretum, started back in 1964, was presented with a gift of 90 species of eucalyptus, which served as the foundation for what is now the largest collection of Australian plants outside of Australia.
  43. UCSC’s Cowell Lime Works Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Lime, produced at the campus site by burning limestone in large redwood-fired kilns, was critical in the manufacture of cement and was used in the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.

  44. Jazz legend Dave Brubeck made a visit to campus in the early ‘80s to dedicate a student-created, red-metal sculpture titled Take Five that sits outside what is known as the “bat caves” of Porter College.

    Growing greener

  45. More than 1,400 graduates of the Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture have fanned out around the globe, spreading the seeds of sustainable agriculture.

  46. In its most recent Long-Range Development Plan, UCSC designated 63 percent of the 2,000 acres of campus land as protected from future development.
  47. It’s a tough climb to get to the top of campus on a bike, but not when you load your wheels on one of UCSC’s Bike Shuttles. Shuttles carried an average of 230 passengers a day during winter 2013.
  48. UCSC eats with a conscience. Within seven years, 40 percent of meals served by UCSC Dining are expected to meet Real Food standards, defined as food that is produced in a fair, humane, and sustainable manner that nourishes producers, consumers, communities, and the Earth.
  49. UCSC Dining is among the most cutting-edge campus food service divisions in the nation. It composts 50 tons of garbage monthly, meaning 85 percent of all waste is composted and recycled. The remaining 15 percent cannot be composted or recycled.
  50. By eliminating trays in dining halls in 2009, Dining has saved more than 1 million gallons of water each year.