new public competitor, especially when Watkins recruited W. Conway Pierce from Pomona College to serve as Riverside's first dean of physical sciences. In turn, Riverside's high-quality faculty combined with low tuition meant that during the 1950s, Riverside briefly led all UC locations (including Berkeley) in terms of the quality of its incoming freshmen classes, and it was the only public college listed on a 1956 ranking of the 10 best liberal arts colleges in the United States. Among the most brilliant of Riverside's early students was Charles E. Young, who would go on to become UCLA's longest-serving chancellor. Mascot history When the university opened in February 1954, many students wanted a bear symbol in keeping with the traditional ursine mascots at UC Berkeley and UCLA. The founding editors initially named the student newspaper "The Cub", and out of a total of 67 names entered in a contest to pick the mascot, "Cubs" was the most popular; however, many felt that this name would permanently denigrate the campus as a "little brother" of UCLA and Berkeley. In November 1954, the men's basketball team championed freshman Donna Lewis' suggestion of "Hylanders" as a write-in candidate in a run-off between "Cubs" and "Grizzlies." The corrected name won easily, as Provost Watkins was noted for speaking with a Welsh accent, and the UCR campus was located at the highest elevation among all UC schools. Also, the Box Springs Mountains were known as the Highlands. The Spieth administration and designation as a general UC campus, 1950s and 1960s At the time of the Strayer Report, the Regents did not believe California could afford multiple high-quality public universities. They intended that the newer campuses would become specialized. Riverside was designed to provide a high-quality liberal arts education, but would not support graduate-level research. However, the Regents soon found that continually increasing enrollment demands at Berkeley and Los Angeles required continuous expansion of the university at all levels and at all locations. The liberal arts college model, implemented by the Regents as a money-saving measure, was ultimately deemed too small and costly in light of the needs of California's rapidly growing population. Biologist Herman Theodore Spieth, chair of the life sciences division, succeeded Watkins as provost upon his retirement in 1956. Spieth was already known to be a supporter of the idea of transitioning Riverside from a small liberal arts college into a full-fledged university, and his