John Muir College is one of the seven undergraduate colleges at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). The college is named after John Muir, the environmentalist and founder of the Sierra Club. It has a humanitarian emphasis focused on the "spirit of self-sufficiency and individual choice." The college opened in 1967, at the height of the American environmental movement triggered in part by Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring. John Muir College describes itself as the "Heart of UCSD" and boasts a strong and distinct character after fifty years of existence.