College Nine: Fostering Global Perspectives at UC Santa Cruz
At UC Santa Cruz, every undergraduate student belongs to one of 10 residential colleges. These small, welcoming communities offer academic support, host events and activities, and help make the campus feel more personal and connected. Your college affiliation is separate from your major, and each college includes students with a wide range of academic interests. Each college has its own theme, identity, and a core course that helps new students build critical thinking and writing skills. You’ll have a chance to rank your college preferences when you accept your admission offer. Among these vibrant communities is College Nine, a unique living and learning environment dedicated to fostering international and global perspectives.
The Genesis of College Nine
The genesis of the vision for UC Santa Cruz’s newest colleges, College Nine and College Ten, dates back to the 1988 Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). The 1988 LRDP thus called for planning two new colleges that would integrate academic and residential facilities. In May of 1999, The Colleges Nine and Ten Planning Advisory Committee issued a report entitled “Opening College IX and X.” Among its recommendations were for these two colleges to “continue the tradition of the current UCSC colleges concentrating upon community life and student affairs,” while also “being centers of interdisciplinary curricula and courses, intellectual stimulation, research, conferences, and student projects.” The proposal was also for these colleges to be affiliated with the Social Sciences Division, as per the 1988 LRDP.
The authors of this report also stated, “…we have come to believe that the opening of Colleges IX and X represents a major new opportunity for UC Santa Cruz [which would build] upon the successes and learning from the failures of the past…” Embedded in this allusion to the past lies a complex, and often contentious history of UCSC’s relationship to its residential college system.
To this date, these colleges are awaiting endowment. College Nine opened its doors in fall quarter of 2000 and College Ten in fall of 2002.
Thematic Focus: International and Global Perspectives
Founded in 2000, College Nine is rooted in the theme of International and Global Perspectives, preparing students to engage thoughtfully with an interconnected world. College Nine’s webpage articulates its philosophy: “College Nine has worked hard to successfully develop a strong community, build meaningful traditions, and emphasize our theme through co-curricular programming. College Nine’s theme of International and Global Perspectives recognizes the importance of cultural competency in the 21st century. The College Nine community offers students a range of opportunities to explore these issues and to develop skills as dynamic leaders. With a focus on cultural competency and leadership, College Nine offers a range of academic and co-curricular opportunities that explore global issues and foster dynamic citizenship.
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The architecture of College Nine, whose theme is “International and Global Perspectives,” features orange and white dorm buildings festooned with different flags of the world.
Key Features and Programs
College Nine is composed of three residence halls (R1, R2, and R3); in the spring of 2006 the residence halls were renamed to emphasize and reflect the college's theme. As of Fall 2006, the new residence hall names are Hague House, Gandhi House, and Geneva House. These names however are temporary names and are subject to change once the college finds a benefactor.
College Nine is also home to the International Living Center (ILC). The ILC is home to nearly a third of international students visiting UCSC while on study abroad and provides a space where international, transfer and domestic students coexist in apartment-style living.
In this oral history Slater and Baxter discuss some of the key elements of the structure, philosophy, and programs at Colleges Nine and Ten, including the Co-Curricular Center (The CoCo), the Leadership Certificate Program, the Practical Activism Conference, the International Living Center, Alternative Spring Break and other service learning programs; The Garden Project, and the relationship with the Social Sciences Division.
Academic and Co-Curricular Opportunities
College Nine offers a variety of courses and programs designed to enhance students' understanding of global issues and develop their leadership skills. These include:
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- The Co-Curricular Center (The CoCo): A hub for student engagement and leadership development.
- The Leadership Certificate Program: Equips students with the skills and knowledge to become effective leaders in a global context.
- The Practical Activism Conference: A yearly conference co-hosted with John R. Lewis College, bringing the UCSC community together to examine and discuss social justice issues through workshops and speaker events.
- Alternative Spring Break and other service learning programs: Provide students with opportunities to engage in community service and address social justice issues.
Community and Residential Life
College Nine is situated at the center of campus, offering close access to Science Hill and the many scenic trails through UCSC’s upper campus.
The college fosters a strong sense of community through various residential programs and initiatives, including:
- The iFloor and International Living Center (ILC): Unique residence hall and apartment communities dedicated to bringing international students and college residents together.
Connecting to the Broader UCSC History
In the early 1960s, the colleges were the vision and invention of founding chancellor Dean McHenry and then-University of California President Clark Kerr and were intended to make UCSC “seem small” as it grew because students would live and study in the intimate environment of their themed college. The idea was to combine the advantages of small liberal arts college (such as Swarthmore) with the resources of a major research university.
However, the college system faced challenges, leading to a reorganization in the 1970s. This plan excised most of the academic role of the colleges (with the exception of a freshman core course) and assigned the academic mission of UCSC mostly to the academic divisions. (The exceptions to this plan were Oakes College and College Eight, which retained more of the original model.) The central mission of the colleges became residential life.
The writers of the report “Opening Colleges IX and X” acknowledged this sentiment when they wrote, “While we can learn from some parts of the McHenry model, we cannot return to it. It has been rejected by the campus.” Instead they call for a third model of how colleges could work at UC Santa Cruz, which they call the Greenwood Model. This model builds on the post-Reorganization college focus on community life and student affairs and “engages faculty members and students in a way that the current colleges do not.” The writers were astute not to imply that the existing eight UCSC colleges should adopt this Greenwood Model, arguing instead that the two models could exist side by side.
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Courses Offered
College Nine offers a variety of courses designed to enhance students' understanding of global issues and develop their skills in areas such as community engagement, storytelling, and social justice. Here are a few examples:
- CLNI 42 Foundations for College Success: Teaches foundational concepts for intellectual exploration and personal development within an academic community: analysis, critical thinking, metacognition, engagement with others across difference, and self-efficacy.
- CLNI 51 Student Internship through the Apprenticeship in Community Engaged Research (H)ACER Program: The (H)ACER Program joins community engagement with critical reflexive components of qualitative research to support transformative learning and strengthen community-university partnerships.
- CLNI 62 The Undeclared Scholars Discovery Lab: Offers a framework for personal and intellectual exploration to help guide thoughtful consideration of potential majors.
- CLNI 70 College Nine and John R. Lewis College Community Garden: Students in this course design and build a new community garden at Colleges Nine and Ten.
- CLNI 80 International Cafe: Students learn about current international and global issues through interactive exercises, small-group discussions, and faculty presentations.
- CLNI 85 Social Impact Storytelling: This course introduces students to the history, social context and techniques of storytelling and takes students through the research, writing and performing process of storytelling from the personal to the communal, with an emphasis on social impact storytelling, purposeful stories that drive action on social issues.
- CLNI 93 Practical Activism Planning Group: Offers an applied experience of collaborative planning, production, and leadership.
Staying Connected
There are lots of ways to stay connected to UC Santa Cruz and College Nine. There are lots of ways to stay involved at College Nine. Would you like to help us continue to offer challenging, hands-on programs that increase students’ awareness of the world we live in and how they can contribute to that world in a productive way? Or courses that help them to develop important life skills like public speaking, financial awareness, or community service learning? Is there an experience you enjoyed in your education that you would like to provide for current students?
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