Santa Barbara: Departments

Economics
Instruction in economics on the Santa Barbara campus antedates the establishment of the Department of Economics. Before 1960, the faculty in economics were members of the Department of Social Sciences, which included the faculties of history, political science, sociology, geography, anthropology, and philosophy. Ultimately, however, because of the size of the department and specialization among faculty members, the individual disciplines split off from the Department of Social Sciences to become departments in their own right.

In the fall of 1954, the economics faculty offered a curriculum leading to the degree of master of arts in economics. Under this curriculum the first M.A. degree in economics was awarded in the spring of 1956. On July 1, 1960, the Department of Economics was established with its own departmental structure and chairman. The department accelerated plans for offering graduate courses and degrees. Beginning in 1963, the department announced offerings leading to the Ph.D. degree in economics.

In the fall of 1965, 45 graduate students, most of whom were working for the Ph.D. degree, were enrolled in the department. The department had six National Defense Education Act fellowships. In addition, there were numerous general scholarships and fellowships awarded to graduate students.

The faculty in economics grew from one full-time economist in 1944 to 15 full-time members, five part-time members, and six graduate teaching assistants in the fall of 1965. Enrollment grew over the years and in the fall of 1965, there were 450 undergraduate students majoring in economics. source

Education
From its beginning, the educational institution at Santa Barbara has been engaged in the preparation of teachers. Originally, its focus was limited to the schools of Santa Barbara and its curriculum restricted to industrial arts and home economics. In 1909, when the legislature made the institution a state normal school, its purpose was enlarged to satisfy a growing statewide demand for elementary and secondary teachers in industrial arts and home economics.

During its 12 years' existence (1909-21) as a state normal school, professional education courses began to be developed as sequential and related courses and also increased in number. In 1916, the following professional courses were offered: History of Education, Psychology, Principles of Teaching, School Law and Administration, Teaching Methods, and Practice Teaching.

With the advent of the state teachers college in 1921, a Department of Education was established with J. Leroy Stockton as its first head. Within five years, Laura S. Price, Elsie A. Pond, and Edith Leonard were added to the faculty which then totaled seven members. Charles L. Jacobs had become the department head, a new campus laboratory school had been started, and 28 courses in education and psychology were offered. By 1950, the number of courses increased to 68 and the faculty to 15, 12 of whom held doctorates.

The college became a part of the University in 1944. The next marked change in the department occurred in the years 1962-65, when a School of Education was established with Gordon S. Watkins as the acting dean. The three majors in the department, early childhood, elementary, and junior high school, were dropped in favor of academic majors for the A.B. degree. Graduate work leading to a master of arts degree in education was also approved during this period. source

Electrical Engineering
In the spring of 1961, the School of Engineering at Santa Barbara was established by the Regents. That fall 90 students were enrolled in freshman engineering. In September, 1961, Albert G. Conrad, head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Yale University, was appointed as the first dean and professor. In October, Philip F. Ordung, professor of electrical engineering at Yale, received an appointment as professor. In the beginning there was a single Department of Engineering with Ordung as its chairman. His responsibility was to develop a Department of Electrical Engineering. Conrad and Ordung, although their appointments were not effective until July 1, 1962, were active during 1961-62 in organizing programs, recommending courses, acquiring equipment, and recommending appointments to the school and to the department. On New Year's Day, 1962, Ordung, in his study in Branford, Connecticut, drew room plans for a building proposed for the future Department of Electrical Engineering at Santa Barbara.

The first staff (1962-63) included two acting assistant professors, a secretary and two laboratory mechanicians. The new school was housed in the quarters of the Department of Industrial Arts, and was helped by the faculty of that department, then in the process of being dissolved.

In July, 1964, the Department of Engineering was replaced by the newly created Departments of Electrical Engineering with Ordung as chairman and of Mechanical Engineering with Otto W. Witzell as chairman. In June, 1965, the first graduates, 16 electrical engineers, received the bachelor of science degree. The master of science degree was offered by the department beginning in the fall of 1965 and by the fall of 1966, a new laboratory for electrical engineering was completed. source

English
Instruction in English composition and literature was offered sporadically during the last three years in the life of the state normal school at Santa Barbara. When the Santa Barbara State Teachers College was created in 1921, a Department of English was established under the chairmanship of William Ashworth. Among the ten courses in its curriculum were Shakespeare, Modern Drama, American Literature, and European Literature. Professor Ashworth's chairmanship extended over most of the institution's various transformations until his retirement in 1949. His tenure in office saw the establishment of a major in English in 1929 (by which time 26 courses were being taught), and the formation of a Division of Speech which remained a part of the English department until 1947, when a separate Department of Speech and Drama was formed.

At the time of the state college's evolution into Santa Barbara College of the University in 1944, the department had a staff of 11 faculty members and was offering 34 courses. At this time the department assumed responsibility for the administration of the Subject A requirement--a responsibility it retained until the establishment of an Office of Subject A in 1962. A program of graduate study leading to the master of arts degree began in 1958. In 1960, instruction in Greek and Latin was instituted under the department's auspices, and a sequence of courses was developed leading to the creation of a Department of Classics in 1962. In 1964, the department admitted the first candidates to a newly established graduate program leading to the Ph.D. degree.

The department offered a two-semester course in literature and composition required of all freshmen, a variety of upper and lower division courses designed to advance the purposes of the general education program, an undergraduate major curriculum in which 540 students were enrolled in the spring of 1965, and a graduate curriculum in which 74 students were enrolled. More than 70 courses were taught by the department's faculty. source