After Kresge 1

photo credit: Cebe Loomis

Kresge College strives to blend the traditional promise of a liberal arts college with a prominent legacy of experimental and interdisciplinary education. Its curriculum is designed to create opportunities for personal growth and strengthening communities, to foster creative and critical thinking about the world we live in, to cultivate good citizenship, and to facilitate stewardship of a just and sustainable society. Kresge College aims to help students of the widest possible range of backgrounds and biographies, to succeed in a path to higher learning at a research institution.

After successfully completing the fall quarter requirement of Kresge 1: Power and Representation, Kresge students can elect to take courses that extend the themes addressed in the core course, such as Power and Representation in Media (KRSG 2), as well as our Media and Society lecture series. Kresge College also offers courses in which traditional academic disciplines (ranging from writing, to photography, to natural history, music, and more) are approached in 2- and 3-credit courses for “lay inquiry”, fostering learning in which students are the primary critical and collaborative audience for one another’s academic work. Some recent examples include

  • Campus Natural History Practicum (KRSG 3)
  • Service Learning (KRSG 12A) and Intro to National Service and Grantwriting (KRSG 12C)
  • Achieving Consensus in Diverse Communities (KRSG 45)
  • Prison Narratives (KRSG 60C)
  • Kresge Lab: Creative Writing (KRSG 65W)

Kresge is also informally known as the "transfer college" of UC Santa Cruz, and in partnership with STARS we offer Successful Transfer to the Research University (KRSG 25). We also successfully piloted a new course for sophomore and junior level students that helps you make the most of your time at UC Santa Cruz, by helping students identify their goals and then supporting students to make steps in the right direction: University Learning with Intention and Purpose (KRSG 100, open to both transfer students and students who started at UCSC as frosh).

You can see the list of courses offered in the current quarter here.

The Kresge faculty affiliated with the Common Ground Center also offer courses that support student cooperatives, foster initiatives for sustainability and justice, communication, and contemplative-studies, which can be seen here. Recent examples include Prison Narratives (KRSG 60C), Transformative Communication (KRSG 68), and the Kresge Garden Cooperative (KRSG 63).