Content Authored by: Imran Ghori

From orchard to campus: How UCR ice cream is made

Walking through rows of citrus groves on a sunny April morning, about a dozen UC Riverside Dining Services employees picked fruit off trees and loaded it in crates into the bed of a truck. A little more than a month later at the Scoops Ice Cream shop at the HUB, Brian Alcantara, retail restaurant manager for HUB operations, ladled ice cream freshly...

By Imran Ghori |

Former UCR Extension building demolished

The final pieces of the old UC Riverside Extension building came down last week as construction crews completed its demolition. The 3.44-acre site will be developed into the SoCal OASIS™ Park, construction of which will start this summer. The park will serve as a hub for research and economic development with laboratories, startup space, and...

By Imran Ghori |

Mary Droser wins top faculty award

The UC Riverside Academic Senate honored seven faculty members for their research, teaching, and public service accomplishments in its annual awards with its top prize going to paleontologist Mary Droser. Droser, a distinguished professor of geology, is the recipient of the 2024-25 Faculty Research Lecturer Award, the highest honor bestowed to...

By Imran Ghori |

Campus earns gold rating for sustainability

UC Riverside received a gold rating for its sustainability efforts from an organization that tracks the nation’s most sustainable colleges and universities. The campus earned the recognition May 15 from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, or AASHE STARS....

By Imran Ghori |

Mobile mental health team helps students where they’re at

For UC Riverside students experiencing a mental health crisis, help now comes to them thanks to a new mobile crisis and intervention team on campus. The Student Well-being, Intervention and Follow-up Team, or SWIFT, made up of three behavioral and mental health professionals, is often the first to respond to calls where a student is in crisis. A...

By Imran Ghori |

UCR launches climate plan process

UC Riverside has begun preparing a climate action plan that will put into place practices and policies towards University of California system-wide sustainability goals. The document, set to be completed by the end of the year, is the first of its kind under a new UC policy. UC updated its sustainability practices policy last year requiring each...

By Imran Ghori |

Campus explores solutions to improve rooftop maintenance

On a chilly Sunday morning, a group of UC Riverside Facilities Services employees gathered to watch a leaf blower fly over the campus. The leaf blower was attached to a large drone that took off from a nearby lawn and hovered over the Pierce Hall roof as part of a test in late April to see if the department can use drones to clean drains and...

By Imran Ghori |

Chancellor Wilcox send-off includes festivities and a new street name

UC Riverside will pay tribute to Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox and give the campus a chance to wish him well at a farewell celebration on May 8. Faculty and staff are invited to join the 3 p.m. send-off on the lawn outside Tomás Rivera Library, which will include music, food, and prizes. Wilcox announced in September that he will be retiring at the end...

By Imran Ghori |

New instructional building passes construction milestone

Progress on UC Riverside’s new instructional building project reached a major milestone this month with the full frame now standing. The construction team poured the final concrete placement at the top of the four-story Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Facility on April 17, representing the completion of the first major phase of work. “All the...

By Imran Ghori |

NPR host shares stories of radical empathy

At a time when many Americans may be overwhelmed by the constant deluge of news, broadcaster Ari Shapiro described how “radical empathy” can inspire people to remain engaged and hopeful. The host of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Shapiro delivered the 56th Annual Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture to a full house at UC Riverside’s University Theatre on...

By Imran Ghori |

Bank mural spotlights UCR

Muralist Juan Navarro has spent his career taking inspiration from the many facets of Riverside’s community. His latest work adds UC Riverside to that list, showcasing iconic images of the campus. Navarro created the mural in January for the Altura Credit Union branch on University Avenue, on a wall next to the teller windows. The bank, which has...

By Imran Ghori |

UCR chef wins medal in cooking challenge

A chef with UC Riverside Dining Services won top honors in a cooking competition hosted by the National Association of College & University Food Services. David Murillo, a culinary manager at Lothian Residential Restaurant, won the silver medal at the association’s Culinary Challenge at its regional conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on March...

By Imran Ghori |

Anthropologist honored for promoting scientific research

Sang-Hee Lee, a UC Riverside professor of anthropology, has been honored by the American Association of Biological Anthropologists, or AABA, for outstanding public engagement in the field. Lee is the recipient of the 2025 AABA and Leakey Foundation Communication & Outreach Award in Honor of Camilla Smith. Noting the importance of promoting...

By Imran Ghori |

Campus bus service detoured

Riverside Transit Agency, or RTA, is detouring buses that serve UC Riverside due to roadwork that is expected to last for a few weeks. Bus stops on Canyon Crest and Campus drives will not be served during the detour. Those include routes that stop at Bannockburn Village and the campus entrance at University Avenue, and loop around with stops at the...

By Imran Ghori |

UCR paleontologists curate exhibit of ancient fossils

A new exhibit featuring fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago brings the work of UC Riverside researchers in the Australian Outback to the Inland Empire for the first time. “From California to Down Under: Fossils of the Ediacaran” opened March 15 at the Western Science Center in Hemet and will run until fall 2025. It features specimens and...

By Imran Ghori |

UCR Library acquires access to Press-Enterprise archive

Almost 150 years of Inland Empire history is now available to the UC Riverside campus community through the UCR Library. Last month, the library acquired access to the entire historical contents of the Press-Enterprise newspaper going back to its 1878 start as a weekly publication, known then as the Riverside Press. The newspaper archives were...

By Imran Ghori |

UCR ranked high in QS World University Rankings

UC Riverside has been named one of the world’s top universities for 17 subject areas in the latest edition of the QS World University Rankings, released Wednesday, March 12. In its rankings, global higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds, or QS, compared more than 18,300 university programs in more than 1,700 universities around the world in...

By Imran Ghori |

Childcare center renovates playgrounds

UC Riverside’s childcare center has an improved play space for children with the recent renovation of a playground. The Center for Early Childhood Education, or CECE, completed the renovation of its south yard in late January, replacing old equipment with new play structures including swings and slides. The project has been several years in the...

By Imran Ghori |

Library lab space offers advanced computer access

Creativity and ambition no longer need to be limited by access to technology thanks to UC Riverside Library’s latest research and creative space. The Scholarly Technology and Research, or STAR, Lab at the Orbach Science Library opened in January 2024 and provides students and researchers a dedicated space where they can use advanced digital tools...

By Imran Ghori |

UCR rallies Highlanders for Give Day

UC Riverside will hold its third annual Give Day on March 4 and 5 with almost 100 projects that donors can support – the largest number of participants so far. UCR Give Day launched in 2023 as a way for donors to support students, research, and campus programs while focusing solely on UCR. Last year’s campaign raised $797,358.27 from 1,249 donors...

By Imran Ghori |