In 1922, to shut down agricultural interests' proposals to sever the University Farm at Davis from the University of California, Berkeley, the Regents of the University of California authorized a two-year undergraduate program at Davis. This initial project soon evolved into a four-year undergraduate program leading to the degree of bachelor of science in agriculture, which was first awarded at Davis in 1926.
Several of the college's departments date back to 1922, when they were initially formed as "divisions". In other words, they were off-site divisions of departments of various colleges at Berkeley. Originally, such faculty members based at Davis or shared by Berkeley with Davis were there to merely support students majoring in agriculture. In contrast, students who actually wanted a complete liberal arts education or to major in other fields needed to pursue other degrees at the Berkeley campus.
In 1951, the College of Letters and Science at Davis was formed as a full-fledged college in its own right, and absorbed several existing divisions as its first departments, and in 1959, Davis achieved full administrative independence from Berkeley as a general campus of the UC system.
Initially composed of 14 majors and 70 faculty members, the College of Letters and Science now has over 14,000 undergraduate students, 1,500 graduate students, 100,000 alumni, and 900 faculty, and offers more than 53 majors and 60 minors. The College of Letters and Science has over 55 departments and programs, 14 centers, labs, and museums, and received over 33 million dollars in research awards (2017–18).
