Welcome to the University of California, Riverside. UCR is one of nine UC campuses. Each is dedicated to teaching, research, and public service, yet each has its own identity.
Our campus has a proud history, one spanning 90 years At UCR, hard work, dedication, and innovation have always been the expected standards, with fun and activity interwoven throughout the year.
As you will see while scanning this catalog, we have a vast array of disciplines, academic courses, and majors and minors. Our diverse and talented faculty members are among the finest researchers and scholars in the world. They work on the cutting edge, making discoveries that define and advance their fields of endeavor. They use this research to enrich their classrooms and help their students learn. In turn, they encourage their students to bring a fresh outlook and new ideas into our laboratories, helping them work through the problems they must grapple with in their research.
This commitment to teaching is evident in our undergraduate courses. Senior faculty teach our mainline introductory classes. I myself teach freshman physics each year (Physics 40A, Mechanics). One result of this commitment is that UCR's time-to-degree is the shortest in the UC system4.1 years for entering freshman and 2.2 years for transfer students. Another way that we are able to maintain this ranking is through our telephone and Internet enrollment system. The system allows us to know, in real time, when course sections are full so we may add new ones in a timely manner, making it easier for students to get the classes they need.
Students at UCR have many opportunities to become involved and make a difference. We are proud of the nationally acclaimed University/Eastside Community Collaborative. Through the program UCR student volunteers mentor at-risk youth, giving them direction they need to turn their lives around. Our campus also has more than 150 service clubs, student organizations, and recreational groups. Each offers our diverse student body a chance to make new friends and be active while serving the campus and community.
In addition, our geographical locationwe are near the beaches, the desert, and the mountainsmakes UCR an ideal place to combine curricular opportunity with fun and personal enrichment.
If you find yourself with questions or concerns, take advantage of the accessibility of our faculty, administration, and staff, almost all of whom can be contacted on the Internet. My e-mail is rayo@admin.ucr.edu. If you contact me on the Net, I will be pleased to respond to your questions personally. If I do not know the answer, I will forward your query to someone who does.
At UCR, we offer you the highest quality education and give it to you personally. That is my pledge as Chancellor, and that is what you will find as a student. UCR is a wonderful place, and in these pages you will find in detail how we are at the forefront of teaching, research, and collegiate life. We hope you will join us and take part in what we have to offer.
