The Colleges

[Return to top]

Cowell College

Cowell College inaugurated the Santa Cruz campus when it opened with a pioneer class of 600 students in 1965. The founding faculty shaped an educational program that challenged and enriched students through wide-ranging inquiry and disciplined study. Today, Cowell has nearly 1,500 affiliated students and 90 faculty fellows. Its motto—The Pursuit of Truth in the Company of Friends— expresses a continuing commitment to create a serious academic environment within a humane and broadly inclusive community. The college is named for the S. H. Cowell Foundation, which endowed the college at its founding.

Academic Emphases

The academic theme of the college encourages students to pursue their general and disciplinary study with attention to the values of liberal arts education: understanding one’s individual perspective by exploration of its historical background and world context. Students affiliated with the college pursue majors from all departments on campus.

The faculty fellows affiliated with the college represent all academic divisions (arts, engineering, humanities, physical and biological sciences, and social sciences). The faculty
fellows guide the college academic programs and serve as academic mentors to the students, supplementing the advising provided by the college academic advisers and departmental advising.

The Cowell core course is required of all first-year students and many transfer students during the first fall quarter they spend at UCSC. Students admitted as lower-division transfer students who prior to enrolling have completed at least one UC-transferable college English composition course with a minimum grade of C (2.0) or better are exempt from the core course requirement. The core course (Cowell 80), taught in small seminar sections, seeks to develop critical reading, analytical writing, and seminar discussion skills by reading a selection of classic and contemporary texts.

The college academic buildings house humanities faculty, with notable concentrations in philosophy, classics (study of ancient Greek and Latin language and civilization), and modern foreign languages, especially Chinese, French, Italian, and Japanese. The interdisciplinary faculty group in pre- and early modern studies is centered at Cowell College.

Students who develop ideas for research, creative projects, community service, or internship experiences may apply to the college provost for financial support. The college sponsors prizes for outstanding academic work and acknowledges students who graduate with overall academic excellence in a breadth of study with College Honors.

The college enriches the intellectual and cultural life of the campus by sponsoring events of various kinds: lectures and presentations by local faculty and visiting scholars, theatrical and musical performances, and forums and debates on topics of current interest.

College Community and Facilities

Cowell’s seven residence halls and three apartment buildings are arranged in three quadrangles on a hillside overlooking the city of Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay. About 650 students are housed in the college. Each residence hall houses from 40 to 60 students and is divided into two wings, with seven to 11 residents on each floor. Most floors are coed, with men and women sharing common lounges and other facilities, but single-gender floors are provided for those who prefer this arrangement. Apartments house 185 continuing students in six-person units. The residential staff members facilitate diverse educational, social, and recreational programming to enhance the living and learning environment.

Arranged around the college’s central plaza are the dining hall, Page Smith Study Library, the fireside lounge, the coffee shop, and conference rooms and classrooms. Unique to Cowell College are the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery, which regularly mounts exhibits, and the Cowell Press, where students can learn the fine technique of hand-operated letterpress printing.

Since the college’s founding, regularly scheduled College Nights in the dining hall have offered students, staff, and faculty a special meal and a rich mix of after-dinner programs presented by students and professional artists. Community life is enlivened by many other scheduled and impromptu intellectual, cultural, and social events.

The Student Senate meets weekly to discuss campus issues and student government. The Senate advises the college on the allocation of funds for student activities and programs. Members of the Senate are selected each year by lot, but any student may become a voting member by steady attendance at meetings. The college’s multicultural advisory board works with staff to create a supportive community for students of color affiliated with the college and to increase awareness of the many dimensions of diversity in the community.

For more information on the college, see www2.ucsc.edu/cowell or call (831) 459-2253.

[Return to top]

Stevenson College

We are Stevensonians; we are free agents of history and masters of our own destinies. Every one of us is important, and we cherish our differences as much as we cherish our shared values of love, chivalry, honesty, hard work, and responsibility.
   — Seung Kyun Joseph Mok, Stevenson Alumnus/Regents Scholar

Stevenson College is named after former statesman and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai E. Stevenson. Our faculty, students, and staff take pride in intellectual critical inquiry, academic and civic leadership, and respect for students’ concerns about shared student governance, human rights, and social justice.

Stevenson College has a long-standing reputation for excellence in liberal education. The college strives to provide an academically, culturally, and socially supportive environment for all its members, fostering social responsibility and academic achievement. Stevenson has brought to the campus distinguished individuals such as Senator George McGovern, Congresswoman Bella Abzug, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, Chief of the Miwok Tribe Greg Sarris, Producer Lourdes Portillo, and Associate Director-Counsel Theodore M. Shaw of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The college’s faculty and staff offer professional and personal service for the diverse needs of students. Faculty and staff assist students in all areas of their academic and social experience at Stevenson College, and are committed to instilling respect for the diverse backgrounds of Stevenson students.

Academic Emphases

• Faculty drawn from social sciences, humanities, natural sciences
• Two-quarter frosh core course
• Writing Assistants
• Junior Fellows Program

Stevenson distinguishes itself as the only college with a two-quarter core course intended to provide all first-year students with a common academic experience. The core course allows for more rigorous development of students’ critical, writing, and analytical skills. It provides a unique learning environment and a supportive intellectual community for all Stevenson first-year students. Students admitted as lower-division transfer students who prior to enrolling have completed at least one UC-transferable college English composition course with a minimum grade of C (2.0) or better are exempt from the core course requirement.Stevenson alumni can be found in legal, political, educational, engineering, medical, computer and information sciences, business, and public administration careers, among others.

The faculty at Stevenson, drawn from a variety of disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, and physical and biological sciences, share a common concern for the study of social processes that shape modern society and determine the quality of our individual lives throughout various global regions and periods of world history. Linguistics, sociology, history, politics, psychology, biology, chemistry, and computer science are strongly represented in the college.

The Stevenson core course, Self and Society enables students to examine the nature of the self and the relationship of the individual to society. In addition, the course fosters an intellectual commitment to the general philosophy which has helped to define Stevenson College since its inception: preservation of human dignity, the social cultivation of individual creativity and citizenship, and a belief in ethical responsibility. The core course reflects the college’s long-standing commitment to interdisciplinary and culturally diverse readings, while at the same time it affords students an opportunity to develop research interests, to acquire greater understanding of the role of research universities in contemporary societies, and to acquire the requisite skills to engage in increasingly more sophisticated intellectual work while at UCSC.

The Stevenson College Junior Fellows Program offers juniors and seniors an opportunity to serve as teaching and research assistants for Self and Society. Junior fellows, who must have completed outstanding work in Self and Society during their first year, undergo a rigorous application and selection process. Junior fellows (enrolled in Stevenson 120, Teaching Practicum) earn 5 course credits.

Stevenson provides writing assistance for all of its students. Stevenson Writing Assistantships are paid student positions open to juniors and seniors with excellent academic records.

College Community

• College Nights
• Stevenson Student Council
• Multicultural Advisory Council
• Fellows-in-Residence Program
• Social and Multicultural Programs/Activities
• Rainbow Theater and Stevenson Theater Guild

Stevenson holds regular College Nights, where joining together for a special dinner presents an opportunity for Stevenson faculty, staff, and students to get together in a social context. College Nights—such as Cinco de Mayo, Chinese New Year, Vietnamese College Night—provide the opportunity to celebrate many different cultures. Dinner is followed by entertainment.

The Stevenson Student Council meets on Thursday evenings. This group of 16 elected representatives (eight resident students, eight living off campus) is responsible for allocating college membership fees to student activities. The council also serves as a forum for the discussion of college and campuswide issues and appoints student representatives to college and campuswide committees.

Facilities

• Eight small residence halls
• Three apartment buildings
• Theme floors in residence halls
• Multicultural House
• Coffee house
• Wagstaff Fireside Lounge
• Writers’ Center
• Stevenson Library
• Stevenson Event Center
• Silverman Conference Room
• The Knoll
• Recreation room

Stevenson has a wide variety of facilities and activities to appeal to many tastes. The college, designed by San Francisco architect Joseph Esherick, has won many architectural awards. The buildings are ­situated amid redwood trees and sprawling lawns, and the main quad overlooks Mon­terey Bay. Stevenson is situated close to the campus bookstore, restaurants, McHenry Library, gym, and pool. There are eight small residence houses at the college providing a choice of single-sex or coed floors; each house accommodates about 60 undergraduates. The apartments provide space for 132 continuing students. Nearby are a picnic area, playing fields, and a garden.

The Stevenson Coffee House, which has become the gathering place in the college, is a friendly and inviting spot to enjoy lunch or an espresso and pastry—indoors or out on the patio. It is the scene of lively conversation, occasional musical entertainment, and chess matches. Adjoining the coffee house is a recreational wing, with Ping-Pong, foosball, pool tables, and color television. This area is also the site of much socializing and spontaneous group activity.

In contrast, the Stevenson Library is a striking building designed for quiet reading and study. The Wagstaff Fireside Lounge, a retreat for relaxed discussion, is also used for recitals, special lectures, meetings, and residence house activities. Art exhibits (both ­student and professional) are on display throughout the year in the lounge, library, and coffee house.

For more information, call (831) 459-4930 or visit the web site: stevenson.ucsc.edu.

Crown College

Crown College faculty (the college fellows) and students represent a wide variety of academic disciplines. The majority of fellows are in the physical and biological sciences
and the social sciences. There are more science and engineering students at Crown than at any other college. However, the majority of Crown students major in the social sciences, humanities, and arts. This diversity of inter-ests and thinking enriches our intellectual environment.

An important goal of the college is to foster an appreciation for the contributions of diverse cultural groups and to provide an atmosphere in which issues of both diversity and common social purpose are integrated into a wide range of programs and discussions.

From the time of its founding in 1967, issues pertaining to the role of science and technology in society have been a focus of special interest at Crown College. Recently, we have approached these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective that recognizes the influence of social and cultural factors on scientific enterprise, as well as the ways in which science and technology influence society.

Crown is located on a hilltop surrounded by a redwood forest. The core buildings consist of an administration office, dining commons, lounge spaces, recreation facilities, study spaces, faculty offices, and classrooms built around a large patio and central fountain. The award-winning architecture with its white walls and high-pitched tiled roofs suggests a hillside Mediterranean village. The college’s residential facilities are made up of eight traditional residence hall buildings and eight apartment buildings housing approximately 700 students. The facilities at Crown College were built through a partnership of public funds and a gift from the Crown Zellerbach Foundation.

Academic Emphases

Ethical Issues in Emerging Technologies: Transgenics, Clones, Cyborgs, and Artificial Intelligence is an interdisciplinary seminar concerning the effects of these world-changing technologies and encourages students to develop decision-making strategies to ethically steer these technologies. The course examines these debates using a variety of disciplinary approaches that engage the perspectives of both humanists and scientists. The fall-quarter core course is required of all first-year students and many transfer students during their first quarter at UCSC. Students admitted as lower-division transfer students who prior to enrolling have completed at least one UC-transferable college English composition course with a minimum grade of C (2.0) or better are exempt from the core course requirement. (See the Crown College Course Descriptions section for a full description.)

The Crown-Merrill Science and Technology Learning Community is an innovative program to support first-year students who are interested in pursuing a major in the sciences. Students enrolled in this program live together, forming a supportive community that promotes collaborative learning and group problem solving. To facilitate this process, students are placed in a special section of Chemistry 1A and participate in a residentially based study group. The program is designed especially for students who have a strong interest in the sciences but feel slightly underprepared for university-level course work. It often acts as a bridge to the ACE Program in the physical and biological sciences and engineering (see the Academic Excellence Program section). Participation—limited to first-year students at Crown and Merrill Colleges—requires a commitment to succeed, a willingness to work hard, and a positive attitude.

The Crown Undergraduate Seminar in Science, Technology, and Society provides highly motivated students the opportunity to work closely with ladder-rank research faculty in a small seminar environment. Topics have included California Climate Change: Past, Present, and Future; Food Matters: Science, Technology, and Society; and an honors seminar on introductory computer architecture.

Juniors and seniors can participate in the college’s new Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, which awards $800 fellowships to student-faculty teams and encourages their interaction through undergraduate research.

College Community and Facilities

Crown sponsors a wide variety of cocurricular events spanning cultural, educational, and social areas of interest. One popular series is the Science/Public Affairs Tables, informal dinners at the Provost’s House that offer students an opportunity to socalize with a faculty member outside the classroom and hear about his or her research.

Students become involved in Crown life by both initiating and participating in a wide range of activities. Social activities vary each year according to the interests of students. At the monthly College Night in the dining commons, a special dinner is followed by entertainment, both often sharing a common cultural theme. Some major events have become traditional: for example, Karaoke College Night, Hypnotist, Crown Formal, and Regression Night. Crown activities and dances draw students from all over campus. Outdoor activities organized by the student government, College Programs Office, or residential staff range from whale watching on the Monterey Bay to atomic bowling and from backpacking to stargazing.

The Crown Student Senate (CSS), the elec-ted student government at Crown, holds open weekly meetings to recommend fund allocations for student activities and to discuss issues of concern to students and the college. CSS also sponsors events to enhance the college experience, including the very popular pelagic shark lecture and Casino Night.

Crown offers two types of residential facilities: residence halls and apartments. Eight traditional residence halls each house 60 students in single, double, and triple rooms in a coed environment (single-sex bedrooms with unisex bathrooms) or on all-female floors. For students particularly interested in living with and learning about a special-interest environment, Crown provides transfer floors, Substance-Free Houses, and a Science and Technology Learning Community.

In addition, the college has apartments for 230 students above the first-year level. Like the residence halls, the apartments are built on a small scale. Each three-story building has two or three apartments per floor that house four or five students in a combination of single, double, and triple rooms and include a kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom, and outside deck.

Other facilities in the college include the Crown Library study space; a modern computer laboratory housing Sun workstations, which provides students with access to several kinds of systems and an array of applications and instructional software selected to support academic course work; the Fireside Lounge with widescreen television; the Music Practice Room; and the Crown-Merrill Community Room, which has a television, pool table, foosball, and ping-pong table, and provides an informal place to study, hold meetings, or just visit with friends. Recently renovated dining facilities boast continuous dining, late-night dining, and Banana Joe’s coffee shop.

For general information, call the college assistant at (831) 459-2665 or visit the web site: www2.ucsc.edu/crown/. For residential or college programs information, call the Student Life Office manager at (831) 459-4656.

[Return to top]

Merrill College

Merrill College seeks to expand its students’ awareness of their own heritage and of the diversity of cultures around the world, past and present. Drawn largely from history as well as the social sciences, literature, and foreign languages, many Merrill ­faculty specialize in social theory, international affairs, and social change. The college makes a special effort to be a home for students from different cultural backgrounds and for international students; it presents unusual opportunities to those who value multicultural perspectives. Merrill is a center for Spanish language and Latin American and Latino studies and has been active in sponsoring American Indian cultural and academic activities.

Academic Emphases

Merrill College has as its theme Cultural Identities and Global Consciousness. In Merrill’s core course, with this same title, students read books by Sherman Alexie, Le Le Hayslip, Zora Neale Hurston, Luis Rodriguez, and John Isbister, among others. These texts increase students’ awareness of cultural and ethnic diversity and of women’s concerns in different cultural settings. More specifically, these writings deepen students’ appreciation of the complexities involved in cultural struggles for the right to live, with respect, in peace and harmony in one’s own community and elsewhere. In addition, the course presents the crisis of world poverty and proposes theoretical solutions, while also investigating the fundamental international forces of imperialism and nationalism. (For the course description, see the Merrill College Course Descriptions section) Students admitted as lower-division transfer students who prior to enrolling have completed at least one UC-transferable college English composition course with a minimum grade of C (2.0) or better are exempt from the core course requirement.

Merrill is in the 10th year of its Freshman Scholars Program. Roughly 22 students are selected by Merrill College to participate in the Freshman Scholars Program. Participants will take two 5-credit seminar courses—one in the fall (a designated section of the core course) and one in the spring quarter (a freshman seminar), do service work in a nearby elementary school or with the Santa Cruz County Immigration Project throughout the academic year, and take part in extracurricular activities organized by the college provost during the winter quarter. Interested high school seniors apply by writing directly to the Merrill provost, after admission.

Now in its sixth year, the winter Merrill American Indian Colloquium Series hosts public and class presentations by noted American Indian professionals and cultural practitioners, from a variety of tribes and pursuits.

Merrill also sponsors a variety of 2- and 5-credit courses on topics that change from year to year, recently ranging from the benefits of re-evaluation counseling, to personal empowerment, to white racial identity in a multicultural society. All are kept to a size that facilitates discussion, and many are designed for first-year students. In addition, students can participate in a variety of service-learning opportunities in the surrounding community.

Recognizing the increasingly rigorous requirements for science majors, Merrill—in collaboration with Crown—has developed the Science Learning Community to support students majoring in the sciences. Students participating in the program live in close proximity to each other and are encouraged to develop a collaborative learning approach.

Merrill is the home of Casa Latina, which houses the Latin American and Latino Studies Department, the Chicano/Latino Research Center, La Galería, and the CineMedia Project. The Ming Ong Computer Center houses 40 modern personal computers.

Merrill serves as the administrative home
for the Departments of History and Politics, in addition to Latin American and Latino Studies. Merrill is also the home of a Peace Corps satellite office. The office helps the many UCSC students who are interested in working overseas with the Peace Corps after graduation.

College Community and Facilities

Located on a hilltop, Merrill’s dramatic and award-winning buildings thread upward through the edge of a redwood forest. The brick patios, gardens, outdoor café, and ­mission bell tower suggest California’s Latino heritage, while the striking architecture of the residence halls is modern.

Merrill has four residence halls offering students both coed and single-sex floors. Two high-rise structures house 361 students, and two smaller buildings provide housing for about 70 students. In the residence halls, small groups of about 14 students share common bathroom and lounge facilities. Residents eat their meals in the Crown–Merrill ­Dining Hall.

Apartments, which are located a short ­distance from the central part of the college, house 160 continuing Merrill students. Grouped amid winding pathways and redwood trees, these three-story buildings have three apartments per floor. Each apartment houses four or five students and comes fully equipped with kitchen and bath, large living area, and outside deck. Facilities at the apartment complex include common lounges, a large community room, and a laundry room.

With the help of the Merrill coordinators for residential education, an enthusiastic residential staff plans recreational activities that include potluck dinners, intramural sports competitions, dances, musical events, film series, and a yearly outdoor mural-painting party. Many of these social and educational activities focus on building a multicultural community. Informal discussions, to which faculty are invited, take place throughout the year. In addition to the dining hall, the college has an attractive outdoor/indoor taqueria. A variety of college and campuswide events take place at the Merrill Cultural Center. For the artistically inclined, Merrill is the only college that has a student-run pottery co-op. Students can throw, fire, and glaze their works in the workshop space, which is open to Merrill students on a first-come first-served basis. The entire college is wired so that students can bring computers from home and connect directly into the Internet from their rooms without the use of a modem—or take advantage of the many wireless hot spots around Merrill.

The physical facilities of Merrill College were provided through a partnership of public funds and gifts from the Charles E. Merrill Trust and the family of Ming Ong. The Joel Frankel Fund, a Merrill scholarship, supports students pursuing fieldwork in Latin America.

For more information, call (831) 459-2144 or visit the web site: www2.ucsc.edu/merrill/.