University Honors

“If you truly wish to understand the present... you must begin in the past” (Mr. Hunham, The Holdovers). As an institute for higher learning, the University of California, Riverside (UCR) has been a strong proponent of this idea ever since it formally opened its doors in 1954 during the early years of the Cold War, a time when many feared that the actions of both past and present would render our future uninhabitable. Despite this bleak outlook, UCR began operation just the same and has continued ever since. However, one might expect that they were well prepared should the feared red dawn ever encroach on the horizon. It was common for the time to put protocols into place in the event of an imminent nuclear strike, specifically geared towards methods of survival which all begin and end with shelter. That could mean the basement in a house, bottom floor of an office building, or a state-of-the-art bomb shelter built specifically to house all immediate students and faculty. If the latter were the case for UCR, then why don’t we know about it and more importantly, where is it? With the help of my faculty mentor, I plan to create a short-form documentary as we consult with experts and legacy UCR staff in the search for this supposed doomsday bunker hiding right under our feet.