University of California, Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a 1,022-acre (414 ha) site in Goleta, California, 8 miles (13 km) from Santa Barbara and 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Los Angeles. Founded in 1891 as an independent teachers' college, UCSB joined the University of California system in 1944 and is the third-oldest general-education campus in the system.

University of California, Santa Barbara in Supervolcano
Rob Ferguson attended UCSB where he received a degree in engineering. His brother Marshall followed him to the campus but found engineering too difficult so changed his major to history, then film studies and finally creative writing. As his academic adviser, Selma Rosenblatt commented, he was quite diligent at his efforts to stick around rather graduate.