UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (Ag&E) is one of four colleges of the University of California, Davis. Established in 1922, it offers degrees in 27 undergraduate majors and thirty-three graduate groups (i.e. M.S. and Ph.D.). As of January 2014, the College has been overseen by Dean Helene Dillard.

Davis was founded as the University Farm in 1905, as part of the College of Agriculture at the main campus at Berkeley, but provided only a non-degree vocational program resulting in certificates. In 1922, to shut down agitation by agriculture interests to sever Davis and the entire College of Agriculture from the university, the Regents of the University of California authorized a two-year undergraduate program at Davis. This quickly evolved into a four-year program leading to the degree of bachelor of science in agriculture, which was first awarded in 1926. This is why the college dates its beginnings to 1922, when college-level courses were first offered at Davis.

In 1952, the College of Agriculture at Davis became independent of the College of Agriculture at Berkeley. Most agriculture-related departments were entirely transferred over the decades to Davis, so that Berkeley's original College of Agriculture evolved into an environmental sciences college which also includes a few departments that were never transferred (e.g., nutrition). In 1959, Davis achieved full administrative independence from Berkeley as a general campus of the UC system.