The Santa Barbara College of the University of California was established at Santa Barbara on July 1, 1944, as a result of a decision of the Board of Regents to take over the facilities of Santa Barbara State College. This action had been authorized in a bill signed by Governor Earl Warren on June 8, 1943. Prominent among those who introduced and worked for passage of the enabling law were state Senator Clarence C. Ward, Assemblyman Alfred W. Robertson, and Thomas M. Storke, later Regent Storke. Appreciation for their services has been expressed in the naming of Ward Memorial Boulevard, main access freeway to the campus, Robertson Gymnasium, and Storke Plaza.

Fall semester enrollment during the first year of University operation was 1,464. This figure rose to a post-war peak of 2,683 in 1947, declined in 1952 to a low of 1,547, and then commenced its increasingly rapid upward trend to the 1965 total of 9,569, of whom 930 were enrolled for graduate studies.

In 1944-45, the faculty numbered 95, in 1965-66, the equivalent of 705 full-time faculty members were engaged in teaching and research.

From Verne Stadtman's Centennial Record (CR), published in 1968