43 Things You Might Not Know About UC Santa Cruz

I forget how I came upon this gem of a website, but someone at UC Santa Cruz brilliantly came up with the idea to create a list of, you guessed it, 43 things you might not know about UC Santa Cruz. Now, it's entirely unclear who this website is designed for, because if you're like my grandmother, for example, you probably don't know ANYTHING about UC Santa Cruz, so this allows them to get away with bullshit factoids like interesting fact number 27: Humans first arrived on what is now the campus 12,000-16,000 years ago; and interesting fact number 34: More than 77,340 degrees have been awarded at UC Santa Cruz since its first graduating class in 1967. However, if you're a UC Santa Cruz student, you probably know all that already. They mix it up a bit, since the list is kind of long (43 facts, you guys), I've decided to condense it down to the facts I find to be most pertinent to all of us today. There are a bunch of really boring ones like "UCSC might in some capacity save the world one day," but I skipped over those to bring you the truly important ones. Enjoy the reading, guys. 

8. Military strategists at U.S. Central Command invited environmental studies professor Alan Richards to brief top Pentagon officials about the war in Iraq. (For Sophie)

22. UCSC’s famous banana slug mascot almost didn’t survive the ’80s. Back when the university joined the NCAA, the chancellor and a group of student athletes changed the campus mascot to the sea lion, figuring a slimy yellow slug didn’t have the cachet they wanted. But students revolted and, in a 1986 referendum, voted by a 15-to-1 margin to keep the banana slug, thereby guaranteeing UCSC would always join the Whittier Poets and the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops on the list of most unusual mascots in the country.

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 in Santa Cruz.

24. 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 big Shepherd/Lab mix 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 and signs that warn against bringing dogs to the campus.

26. Over the years, reports of ghostly apparitions on a fire road below Cowell College have prompted the area to be named Haunted Meadow. It was in that area on May 14, 1903, that Sarah Agnes Cowell was killed when she was thrown from a buggy after the horse bolted.

36. The UCSC campus is home to more than 500 plant species, an extraordinary level of diversity on its 2,000 acres.

38. 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.

I just love the way these all are written, seriously fucking brilliant. Like, the writer took all of these boring facts and in an effort to make them interesting, actually just made them retarded-sounding and cheesy. Like EVEN HUMANS have been known to eat banana slugs, or how it was truly the COOL OCEAN BREEZES that inspired the founders to place UCSC in the exact spot it lies today. Got to love to the alma mater.