Kresge College

Kresge was the sixth college established at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Founded in 1971, it was designed with concepts of collaboration and participatory democracy at the core of its identity.

At Kresge College, we welcome students from all backgrounds to our home in the redwoods, and we strive to give them a small-college learning experience that prioritizes personal and intellectual growth, practical experience, and a sense of community. Our curriculum enables students to live and learn with intention and purpose, to attend to the natural world around them, and to work creatively to solve pressing social, political, and ecological problems. 

Curriculum

Our Core seminar (KRSG 1) invites first-year students to reflect on three Big Questions: Why do I learn? How do I learn? & From whom do I learn? These questions are, we hope, a starting point for students to reflect on what is possible at Kresge, at UCSC, and beyond.

Our enrichment curriculum, which consists of 2- and 3-credit practice-oriented courses, includes small, experiential-learning seminars like Natural History Practicum (KRSG 3), Power of Filmmaking (KRSG 2), Creative Writing (KRSG 65W), and STARRS Internship (KRSG 102), as well as courses that will help you map out your college experience to take full advantage of being at UCSC, like Learning With Intention and Purpose (KRSG 100) and Successful Transfer to the Research University (KRSG 25). In 2024-25, we will offer three new practicums: Making Media for Climate Justice (KRSG 70); Making Media for Immigration Justice (KRSG 71); and Theater Arts for Public Speaking (KRSG 30). We are also beginning an experimental seminar series called Learn to Love Reading Again, anchored by three principles: We read for the sake of reading, not for a test; We engage in discussion to deepen our insight; and We read on paper. 

Faculty and Campus Partners

Kresge’s faculty includes poets, writers, biologists, filmmakers, journalists, anthropologists, political philosophers, historians, ethnomusicologists, dramaturges, and education specialists. Kresge also has many UCSC Senate Faculty affiliates and works closely with a number of key campus partners, including the UCSC Campus Natural Reserve, the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, the Creative/Critical Writing Concentration in Literature, and the newly established Center for Reimagining Leadership. And the college has a rich tradition of supporting Transfer students through our collaborations with STARRS (Services for Transfer, Re-entry, and Resilient Scholars).  

College Programming and Student Organizations

Kresge’s strong sense of community permeates student life, and there are many ways of getting involved in our community. Kresge Parliament offers opportunities for student government, community service, and activism in a setting that emphasizes participatory democracy. The Kresge Garden Co-Op provides a community space where students empower themselves to learn how to grow their own food from seed, dig beds, and create a functional compost system. City on a Hill Press, which covers issues affecting the student population and the Santa Cruz community, is produced by and for UCSC students. TWANAS Communities of Color and Native American Students Press is one of the oldest student-run magazines at UCSC and is dedicated to providing a media outlet for students of color to write about issues affecting students of color. And for three decades, Kresge Presents Pride has been the proud host of UCSC’s LGBTQIA+ Pride celebration every May. 

The Kresge Programs Office is your home base for extracurricular involvement and hosts social activities throughout the year, including de-stress events (often with therapy dogs), arts & crafts opportunities, movie nights, game nights, casino nights, and an array of workshops. Writers House is a themed housing floor and accompanying speaker series that brings poets, novelists, journalists, and other writers to Kresge. Kresge’s Media & Society series presents lectures and public conversations on the role of media and popular culture in contemporary society, and now partners with City on a Hill Press to host events with print, digital, TV, and radio journalists.