Introducing UC Santa Cruz
2016-17 General Catalog
The University of California
The University of California was chartered as a land-grant college in 1868. From its rural beginning, the university has developed into one of the world’s most distinguished universities, acclaimed for its research, scholarship, and dedication to undergraduate and graduate education. There are 10 University of California campuses located regionally throughout the state: Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. In addition, there are some 800 associated research institutes, laboratories, agricultural field stations, and extension centers serving California and the nation. The university is the primary state-funded academic agency for research. Its library collections, totaling more than 39 million print volumes, are among the best in the country.
The University of California faculty, more than 21,000 in number, is distinctive in its 31 living Nobel Laureates and 593 members of the National Academy of Sciences—more than any other college or university system. Faculty membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences totals 540.
The University enrolls more than 198,000 undergraduates selected from the top 12.5 percent of the state’s high school graduates and more than 52,000 graduate students. The 1.6 million living alumni enrich the nation with public service and leadership.
The Santa Cruz Campus
Since its inception in 1965, the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been dedicated to excellence in undergraduate education, graduate studies, and research. UC Santa Cruz students can take advantage of innovative academic planning combined with the research resources and scholarship strengths of the University of California system. At UC Santa Cruz, a program of general education is enhanced with opportunities for academic specialization.
Planned enrollment for the 2016-2017 academic year is 17,700 students, of whom 1,650 will be graduate students. UC Santa Cruz seeks and welcomes students, faculty, and staff of diverse ethnic and cultural experiences. The campus continues to enroll a student body that reflects the state’s ethnic and socioeconomic diversity and plans to increase both its enrollment and resources to diversify its educational and research opportunities. UC Santa Cruz is a Hispanic Serving Institution member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, with more than 30 percent of undergraduates identifying as Hispanic or Latino.
UC Santa Cruz faculty and emeriti include 12 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 22 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 34 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Numerous faculty have been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships, and several have been awarded national awards for distinguished teaching. Three faculty members, three bachelor’s degree recipients, and two Ph.D. recipients have been named MacArthur Fellows, and since 1972, when UC Santa Cruz began participating in the program, about 120 Fulbright scholarships have been awarded to UC Santa Cruz students and alumni.
The residential colleges are an important part of the UC Santa Cruz undergraduate experience. The 10 colleges divide the university into smaller communities, each serving as a social and intellectual gathering place for 1,400 to 1,700 students and 30 to 110 faculty fellows from a variety of academic disciplines. Every undergraduate student affiliates with a particular college while participating in a campuswide academic program. All of the colleges are interdisciplinary, and all academic majors are open to students from all colleges.
Each college has a distinctive quality derived from its core course and extracurricular programs and from its faculty fellows and their academic disciplines. Detailed descriptions of the 10 colleges can be found in The Colleges section of the catalog.
Undergraduate education. The campus offers major programs in the arts, engineering, humanities, physical and biological sciences, and social sciences—as well as interdisciplinary major programs and minors. A complete list of academic programs and concentrations appears on the Fields of Study chart, and detailed descriptions begin in the Programs and Courses section of the catalog.
The major and minor programs are administered by departments. In most cases, departments are composed of faculty in the same field, but interdisciplinary programs draw on faculty from several fields.
With few exceptions, letter grades are assigned in all credit courses. In addition, academic performance in each course may be recorded by a narrative performance evaluation. (See Evaluating Academic Performance.)
Undergraduate education at UC Santa Cruz is focused on student success. UCSC’s college core courses give first-year students a small-seminar experience in their first year; intensive work in writing, discussion, and critical reasoning; as well as an orientation to academic life. To fulfill the campus’s rigorous comprehensive requirement, every senior must pass a comprehensive examination or complete an equivalent body of work.
Individual research is encouraged, and hundreds of research papers coauthored by UC Santa Cruz undergraduates and their professors have been published in journals. For additional information, visit the Undergraduate Research Opportunities website.
Annually, more than 500 UC Santa Cruz students broaden their academic careers through the UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP), which allows students to incorporate full-time study abroad as UC credit toward their degrees. UCEAP provides a vital international connection for academic and personal growth in an increasingly interdependent world (see International Education Office).
The UC Santa Cruz campus strongly encourages undergraduate students to take advantage of the many opportunities for public service such as those provided through the campus’s field programs, colleges, and Career Center. Individual studies, apprentice teaching, field studies, and internships can be important parts of the undergraduate experience (see Field Programs).
Graduate education. The UC Santa Cruz campus offers graduate programs in more than 30 fields. Within the graduate programs, there are a range of options for concentrated study in a specialized field. Graduate study at UC Santa Cruz emphasizes close interaction between faculty and students, independent student research, supervised teaching experience, and interdisciplinary work. Further graduate information is provided in the Graduate Education section of the catalog.
Research. The UC Santa Cruz campus hosts a number of major research units. UC Observatories, the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP), and the Institute of Marine Sciences conduct state-of-the-art research on topics ranging from the discovery of planets outside our solar system, to the detection of new sub-atomic particles, to the ecology of marine mammals. UC Santa Cruz is also a primary partner in inter-UC campus initiatives—such as the Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3) and the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS)—which focus on human health and the use of information technology to solve social, environmental, and health care problems. The Institute for Humanities Research (IHR) oversees a range of topical centers that promote interdisciplinary research, including the Center for Cultural Studies, the Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for Labor Studies, the Linguistics Research Center, and the Dickens Project. Research enterprises within the arts benefit from the Arts Research Institute and the Center for Documentary Arts and Research, while the Institute of the Arts and Sciences emphasizes interdisciplinary exhibitions, events, and residency programs. The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, the Center for Integrated Spatial Research, the Chicano/Latino Research Center, and the Science & Justice Research Center provide pioneering directions for research in the social sciences. Engineering at UC Santa Cruz has focused on strategic initiatives that include the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, the Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells, the Center for Games and Playable Media, and the Center for Sustainable Energy and Power Systems. Beyond these organized research enterprises, UC Santa Cruz has a wide suite of investigator-driven research that spans the width and breadth of campus inquiry. For additional information see Resources for Learning and Research.
The central UC Santa Cruz campus occupies 2,000 acres on the west side of the city of Santa Cruz, on Monterey Bay, about 75 miles south of San Francisco and 35 miles southwest of San José. Expansive meadows at the campus entrance gradually slope up to a redwood forest that covers most of the site. Each residential college is within easy access of the campus’s central core, which includes an extensive library, science laboratories, lecture halls, art studios, theater arts and music centers, a student union, and athletic facilities. Although the campus is spread out over many acres of hilly terrain, its programs are accessible to people with mobility impairments (see Disability Resource Center).
The city of Santa Cruz is a well-known recreational area and center for the arts. Mild weather, miles of beaches, and many cultural opportunities combine to make Santa Cruz an enjoyable place to study and live.
Accreditation. The University of California, Santa Cruz, is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), 985 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 100, Alameda, CA 94501, (510) 748-9001, an institutional accrediting body recognized by the Council for Higher Education and the U.S. Department of Education.
Specific degree programs at UC Santa Cruz are also accredited: The Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, http://www.abet.org (Electrical Engineering); the American Chemical Society Committee on Professional Training (Chemistry); and the California State Commission on Teacher Credentialing (Education). To review accreditation documents, please contact the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Kerr Hall, (831) 459-1349, or vpaa@ucsc.edu.
Revised 09/01/16
