Editing University of California, Davis (section)

===From vocational certificates to bachelor's degrees===

In 1916, the Farm's 314 students occupied the original {{convert|778|acre|ha}} campus. The institution grew at a breakneck pace over the next four decades. By 1951, it had expanded to a size of {{convert|3000|acre|ha}}.<ref>{{cite web|title=History from UC Davis official site|date=November 19, 2015|url=https://www.ucdavis.edu/about/history/|access-date=December 21, 2019}}</ref> Along the way, it was renamed in 1922 to become the Northern Branch of the College of Agriculture, and in 1938, it became the College of Agriculture at Davis.  
  
Initially, no degrees were awarded at Davis.<ref name="Stadtman_Page340">{{cite book|last1=Stadtman|first1=Verne A.|title=The University of California, 1868–1968|url=https://archive.org/details/universityofcali00stad|url-access=registration|date=1970|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/universityofcali00stad/page/340 340]}}</ref> Students in the College of Agriculture at Berkeley often enrolled at Davis for a single semester to obtain practical training on an actual farm alongside the vocational students, but had to return to Berkeley to earn their degrees.<ref name="Dingemans_Page_7" /><ref name="Stadtman_Page340" /> Because the non-degree vocational program at Davis was so disconnected from the traditional degree programs on the main Berkeley campus, agricultural interests began to agitate to separate Davis and the entire College of Agriculture from the University of California.<ref name="Stadtman_Page340" /> This forced the regents in 1922 to silence such proposals by initially authorizing a two-year undergraduate program at Davis.<ref name="Stadtman_Page340" /> By sharing faculty members between Berkeley and Davis and hiring a few more faculty members, the university was able to provide almost all courses of a "complete undergraduate program" at Davis—that is, a four-year program leading to the bachelor's degree.<ref name="Stadtman_Page340" /> The first class graduated from Davis in 1926.<ref name="ArchivesSpecialCollections" />

UC regularly appointed faculty members to joint positions at both Berkeley and Davis.<ref name="ClarkKerr_Page306">{{cite book|last1=Kerr|first1=Clark|title=The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949–1967, Volume 1|date=2001|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=9780520223677|page=306|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jMEZ_47vXkAC&pg=PA306|access-date=17 August 2020}}</ref> This was possible because the two campuses are separated by only 53 miles (85 km), and the opening of [[Carquinez Bridge|a new bridge]] over the [[Carquinez Strait]] in 1927 greatly shortened the drive between them. Sharing faculty meant that the two campuses have always had an amicable relationship, in that Davis gradually developed its own strong identity while remaining proud of its older sibling.<ref name="ClarkKerr_Page306" /> Thus, Davis did not suffer from the kind of "hang-ups" (i.e., [[inferiority complex]]es)<ref name="ClarkKerr_Page306" /> which at [[University of California, Los Angeles|Los Angeles]] culminated in a systemwide decentralization process from 1957 to 1960 in which the regents and the UC president delegated most of their powers and responsibilities to chancellors at the campus level.<ref name="Kerr_Page_191">{{cite book |last1=Kerr |first1=Clark |title=The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949–1967, Volume 1 |date=2001 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=9780520223677 |pages=191–205 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jMEZ_47vXkAC&pg=PA191 |access-date=February 3, 2019 |archive-date=September 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240905060936/https://books.google.com/books?id=jMEZ_47vXkAC&pg=PA191#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Davis still retains a few traditions from its early era when its identity was much more intertwined with Berkeley, such as the Bossy Cow-Cow cheer, a parody of Berkeley's [[Oski Yell]].

In 1941, the state legislature authorized the creation of a school of veterinary medicine at Davis, but the school's launch was severely delayed by the [[Military history of the United States during World War II|entrance of the United States into World War II]] and it did not open until 1948.<ref name="Dingemans_Page_44">{{cite book |last1=Dingemans |first1=Dennis |last2=Scheuring |first2=Ann Foley |title=University of California, Davis|year=2013|publisher=Arcadia|location=Charleston|isbn=9780738596990|page=44|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mqVPwTiqc4cC&pg=PA44}}</ref> In 1943, the [[United States Army Signal Corps|U.S. Army Signal Corps]] took over Davis to use the campus as a training facility.<ref name="Stadtman_Page340" /> The Davis campus was not returned to civilian use until the end of 1944.<ref name="Dingemans_Page_42">{{cite book |last1=Dingemans |first1=Dennis |last2=Scheuring |first2=Ann Foley |title=University of California, Davis|year=2013|publisher=Arcadia|location=Charleston|isbn=9780738596990|page=42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mqVPwTiqc4cC&pg=PA42}}</ref>

From 1926 to 1947, all Davis students earning bachelor's degrees had to travel to Berkeley for graduation.<ref name="Dingemans_Page_41">{{cite book |last1=Dingemans |first1=Dennis |last2=Scheuring |first2=Ann Foley |title=University of California, Davis|year=2013|publisher=Arcadia|location=Charleston|isbn=9780738596990|page=41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mqVPwTiqc4cC&pg=PA41}}</ref> In 1948, "the regents agreed to decentralize graduations".<ref name="Dingemans_Page_41" /> In a ceremony at Davis that year, UC President [[Robert Gordon Sproul]] "awarded 101 bachelor of science degrees in agriculture", along with 195 certificates to graduates of the two-year vocational program.<ref name="Dingemans_Page_41" />

In 1949, UC expanded the Davis campus to what is now West Campus by purchasing the 526-acre Straloch Farm to the west from its owner, Harry Hopkins.<ref name="Dingemans_Page_54">{{cite book |last1=Dingemans |first1=Dennis |last2=Scheuring |first2=Ann Foley |title=University of California, Davis|year=2013|publisher=Arcadia|location=Charleston|isbn=9780738596990|page=54|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mqVPwTiqc4cC&pg=PA54}}</ref><ref name="Robertson">{{cite news |last1=Robertson |first1=Kathy |title=Yolo pilots alarmed |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2002/04/22/story7.html |work=Sacramento Business Journal |date=April 21, 2002 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>  The farm came with an 86-acre private airport constructed by Hopkins in 1946.<ref name="Dingemans_Page_54" /><ref name="Robertson" /> The [[University Airport]] was the first university airport in the United States and is still the only one in the UC system.<ref name="Dingemans_Page_54" /><ref name="Robertson" />

In 1958, the vocational program was discontinued.<ref name="ArchivesSpecialCollections" />