SUBJECT:

"An Improbable Venture, A History of UCSD"

A history of UCSD has just been published and is available for
purchase at the UCSD book store (paperback: $7.95; hard cover:
$14.95). For those of you who were present at or shortly after the
creation, it will bring back memories, some of them probably complex.
For those of you who think that UCSD has always been here, the book
should prove a fascinating account of the extraordinary quality --
indeed, the improbability -- of the circumstances surrounding the
founding and growth of UCSD.

The book is not administrative "puff." Nancy Scott Anderson is a
journalist and historian. She required and was given complete
independence in writing it. Working from extensive archival research
and interviews with all the major players, she details how the State
of California was first persuaded to build a campus on the foundation
of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and then how a number of
brilliant academics were convinced to come from established
universities around the country to a barren bluff overlooking the
Pacific. They worked together, fought together and with each other,
sometimes left in a huff. During the late 1960's, the conflicts that
divided the country became salient lines of division on the UCSD
campus: faculty against faculty, town against gown, campus against
State, student against student and against faculty, and the
administration, it sometimes seemed, against all. Through it all the
institution prospered and the result is UCSD as we now have it.

I found the book fascinating and informative. I learned a lot about
the history of our institution and think that others might also. I
urge you to read it.

One other matter: should you read it and have comments, criticisms or
corrections to make, we have established a file that will become a
permanent part of the ongoing history of the campus. We would
appreciate anything you might care to contribute. Please address your
comments to:

UCSD HISTORY FILE
c/o Lynda Claassen, University Library, 0175-S
(E mail: LCLAASSEN@UCSD.edu).

Thank you.

Tracy B. Strong Associate Chancellor