This chapter chronicles the emergence of a research university, beginning when the university was just a twinkle in some eyes and noting the obstacles that had to be surmounted to arrive at opening day. After outlining the complexities that faced administrators in building a new research university, the author focuses on the political and environmental issues that tenth campus planners had to overcome. The major challenges came from the political arena: garnering support for a less populated but fast-growing area of California, riding the state's budgetary roller-coaster, negotiating with regulatory agencies whose mandates often force them to look at the trees while ignoring the forest, and building a base of support within the layers of complexity that surround a new venture in California. The chapter concludes with a survey of the academic underpinnings for creating the first new American research university of the twenty-first century. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)