101-399: The AMCHA Initiative is a non-partisan organization aiming to combat antisemitism on campuses through investigation, documentation, and education in order to protect Jewish students from assault and fear. AMCHA was founded in 2012 by University of California Santa Cruz lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and University of California Los Angeles Professor Emeritus Leila Beckwith. The term Amcha
202-546: A "counterculture college". In 2009, The Princeton Review (with GamePro magazine) ranked UC Santa Cruz's Game Design major among the top 50 in the country. In 2011, The Princeton Review and GamePro Media ranked UC Santa Cruz's graduate programs in Game Design as seventh in the nation. In 2012, UCSC was ranked No. 3 in the Most Beautiful Campus list of Princeton Review . The undergraduate program, with only
303-505: A "distinctive personality" for the Santa Cruz campus and let it "flourish as first rate within its own type." In his memoirs, Kerr ruefully recounted the myriad errors made by himself and McHenry in launching the new campus. They had created Santa Cruz as the "most experimental" of the UC campuses, but opened it just in time for their cherished "Santa Cruz dream" to die amidst the counterculture of
404-519: A "pass/no pass" basis. Although the default grading option for almost all courses offered is now "graded", most course grades are still accompanied by written evaluations. The McHenry Library houses UCSC's arts and letters collection, with most of the scientific reading at the newer Science and Engineering Library. The McHenry Library was designed by John Carl Warnecke . In addition, the colleges host smaller libraries, which serve as quiet places to study. The McHenry Special Collections Library includes
505-587: A U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization" violated its terms of use. The AMCHA has been accused of "conflating" anti-Semitism with "condemnation of Israel". On June 25, 2014, the Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies of SFSU issued a public statement on the university website, accusing the group of having "developed a reputation for misrepresentation of facts against individuals and institutions...continued ill intent and propaganda style tactics". The dean also demanded that
606-481: A campus event to discuss with students what she had learned from a trip funded by the university to Palestine and Jordan. The purpose of the trip had been to attend an international conference and to network, research, and collaborate with potential university partners in Palestine. The day before Abdulhadi's campus event, AMCHA sent a letter to university president Leslie Wong , claiming that the event would "contribute to
707-501: A capitalist-imperialist-fascist plot to divert the students from their revolution against the evils of American society and, in particular, against the horrors of the Vietnam War ." The students then tried to award an honorary degree to Huey P. Newton (who was in jail at the time, although he went on to earn his bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees at Santa Cruz). Kerr later recalled this episode of " guerrilla theatre " as "one of
808-498: A different graduation ceremony. Almost all faculty members are affiliated with a college as well. The individual colleges provide housing and dining services, while the university as a whole offers courses and majors to the general student community. Other universities with similar college systems include Rice University and the University of California, San Diego . Each of the colleges has its own, distinctive architectural style and
909-409: A full teaching strike, including withholding grades. UCSC administrators' called in police from various counties. 17 students were arrested, and several were injured, but UCSC denied the claims of police brutality and excessive force. On February 27, 2020, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara joined the strike. On February 28, 2020, 54 graduate student-workers were terminated and continued strikes shut down
1010-407: A hostile environment for Jewish students." On March 26, AMCHA sent another letter, claiming that following the event, observers had seen Jewish students "in tears." AMCHA Initiative co-founder Tammi Rossman-Benjamin also accused Abdulhadi of having defrauded the state of California: "We believe that there was some fraud going on in order to get the money, approval, insurance, she essentially defrauded
1111-484: A list of professors who publicly supported the academic boycott of Israel. In criticism of this initial list, a group of 40 Jewish Studies professors signed a statement calling AMCHA's actions "deplorable". Despite the criticism, the list of continues to be updated. In 2017, Haaretz reported that the list included hundreds of names. The universities that topped the list were UC Berkeley with 47 names and UC Davis with 46. Critics feared that AMCHA's list would be used by
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#17328587793481212-478: A meeting with the UC Board of Regents following Barghouti's speaking arrangements, Tammi-Benjamin alleged that the three events included "appalling anti-Semitic statements." In 2016, AMCHA led a campaign involving 43 Jewish and pro-Israel organizations in opposing a student-led course titled "Ethnic Studies 198: Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis." AMCHA alleged that the course was "political indoctrination" and that
1313-603: A member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine which is a designated terrorist organizations in several countries including the United States. AMCHA wrote a letter of protest against the event, joined by 86 other organizations, stating that Abdulhadi "foments a divisive and toxic atmosphere, both inside and outside the classroom, that incites hatred and harm towards Jewish and pro-Israel students; and seriously erodes
1414-557: A million items, and the Mary Lea Shane Archives. The Shane Archives contains an extensive collection of photographs, letters, and other documents related to Lick Observatory dating back to 1870. A 82,000-square-foot (7,600 m ) new addition to the library opened on March 31, 2008, including a "cyber study" room and a Global Village café. The original 144,000-square-foot (13,400 m ) library reopened on June 22, 2011 after seismic upgrades and other renovations. In total,
1515-506: A plate, as well as the heads of all others like her, and all others who support the IDF." AMCHA forwarded the material to the university and the police. In February 2014, university officials announced that the student had withdrawn from the university before the spring semester had begun on January 23 and that he was no longer enrolled nor living in campus housing. On March 6, 2014, San Francisco State University (SFSU) Professor Rabab Abdulhadi held
1616-554: A project in planning since 2004. The $ 72 million Coastal Biology Building officially opened on 21 October 2017 on the Coastal Science Campus. The new campus houses the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department and faculty interested in the study of ecology and evolution in ocean, terrestrial and freshwater environments. The 2,000-acre (810 ha) UCSC main campus is located 75 miles (121 km) south of San Francisco, in
1717-448: A resident faculty provost , who is the nominal head of his or her college. An incoming first-year student will take a mandatory "core course" within his or her respective college, with a curriculum and central theme unique to that college. College resident populations vary from about 750 to 1,550 students, with roughly half of undergraduates living on campus within their college community or in smaller, intramural campus communities such as
1818-415: A set of caverns, some of which are challenging, narrow passages. Tree Nine is another popular destination for students. A large Douglas fir spanning approximately 103 feet (31 m) tall, Tree Nine is located in the upper campus of UCSC behind College Nine . The tree had been a popular climbing spot for many years but due to environmental corrosion and fear of student injuries, UC ground services sawed off
1919-599: A total of 12 Pulitzers awarded, seven MacArthur 'genius' Awards fellows , Rhodes Scholars , Fulbright Scholars , and Marshall Scholars , amongst others. UC Santa Cruz is classified among " R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity ". The university is also a member of the Association of American Universities . Prior to Spanish colonization , the Uypi tribe of the Awaswas Nation, who spoke Mutsun Costanoan of
2020-454: A two volume series, Seeds of Something Different: An Oral History of the University of California, Santa Cruz. UCSC is one of only two UC campuses to have an oral history projected dedicated to covering the history of the area around the university and the university itself. Planning the new UC campus was just as hard as picking the site. The first plan was to build the campus on what is now
2121-448: A two-year battle, the faculty narrowly voted to give students the option of receiving grades for the first time, in lieu of Santa Cruz's traditional narrative evaluations . By the fall of 1984, 45% of Santa Cruz students were already majoring in the sciences, and that year, the campus offered computer engineering as a major for the first time (in order to take advantage of its proximity to Silicon Valley), followed by business economics
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#17328587793482222-785: A variation of the Oxbridge collegiate university system. Among the faculty are Nobel Prize laureates, Rhodes Scholars, Fulbright Scholars, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences recipients, 16 members of the National Academy of Sciences , 29 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , and 46 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . UC Santa Cruz alumni includes ten Pulitzer Prize winners, with
2323-414: A year later. In May 1985, Sinsheimer, a molecular biologist, welcomed several scientists to Santa Cruz for one of the first meetings at which the idea of a Human Genome Project was discussed. Sinsheimer got Santa Cruz involved in intercollegiate athletics for the first time as part of NCAA Division III . In 1981, he supported student athletes' preference for the sea lion as the campus mascot , but
2424-622: Is Hebrew for "your people" or "your nation." In 2014, The Forward wrote that AMCHA raised $ 200,000 in its first year and spent $ 100,000. In 2018 Israeli-American journalist Mairav Zonszein reviewed San Francisco Jewish Federation 's tax filings. According to her review, the Federation and the Helen Diller Family Foundation has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to AMCHA in recent years. She describes AMCHA and other groups as "extremist, radical right-wing, and anti-Muslim". AMCHA
2525-627: Is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California , United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay , on the edge of the coastal community of Santa Cruz, the main campus lies on 2,001 acres (810 ha) of rolling, forested hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. As of Fall 2023, its ten residential colleges enroll some 17,812 undergraduate and 1,952 graduate students. Satellite facilities in other Santa Cruz locations include
2626-478: Is a strategic priority and our commitment to free speech runs deep." In 2013, AMCHA Initiative uncovered threatening Tumblr posts by the President of GUPS at SFSU. One was a photo of the student holding a knife, with the caption: "I love this blade... it makes me want to stab an Israeli soldier.” Another was of an Israeli soldier with the caption "the only “peace” I'm interested in is the head of this f**cking scum on
2727-551: Is bounded on the south by the city's upper-west-side neighborhoods, on the east by Harvey West Park and the Pogonip open space preserve , on the north by Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park near the town of Felton , and on the west by Gray Whale Ranch , a portion of Wilder Ranch State Park . The campus is built on a portion of the Cowell Family ranch , which was purchased by the University of California in 1961. The northern half of
2828-601: Is home to several research centers, including the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering and Cyberphysical Systems Research Center, which are gaining recognition, as has the work that UCSC researchers David Haussler and Jim Kent have done on the Human Genome Project , including the widely used UCSC Genome Browser . Also associated with the Baskin School is the off-campus Westside Research Park. UCSC administers
2929-591: Is similar to Canary Mission but focuses on faculty and not on students. Adam Milstein 's Milstein Family Foundation is also one of AMCHA's donors. AMCHA opposes the BDS movement which it believes is anti-Semitic, based on what it says are "hate-filled rhetoric and imagery intended to demonize and delegitimize Israel" BDS, which has enjoyed some success on U.S. campuses, calls for comprehensive boycotts of Israel until it stops its alleged human rights violations against
3030-542: Is the oldest in the country, and pioneered organic horticulture techniques internationally. As of 2015, UCSC's faculty include 16 members of the National Academy of Sciences , 29 fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , and 46 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . The Baskin School of Engineering , founded in 1997 is UCSC's first and only professional school . Baskin Engineering
3131-565: The Anti-Defamation League , or Hasbara Fellowships . In response, AMCHA Initiative organized a letter with six other organizations condemning the pledge as an "outrageous and impermissible violation of students’ right to free expression, their right to free association and their fundamental right to travel and move freely." The letter was delivered to the UC Board of Regents, University President Janet Napolitano and Chancellor Gene Block . Soon thereafter, Block and Napolitano condemned
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3232-918: The California State Senate passed a resolution asking the Regents to consider the Monterey Peninsula , and that same year, the California State Assembly passed its own resolution asking the Regents to consider the Santa Clara Valley . In December 1959, the Regents voted to focus their site selection process on the Almaden Valley in San Jose (i.e., within the Santa Clara Valley and the larger region now known as Silicon Valley ), but
3333-1016: The Coastal Science Campus and the Westside Research Park and the Silicon Valley Center in Santa Clara , along with administrative control of the Lick Observatory near San Jose in the Diablo Range and the Keck Observatory near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii . Founded in 1965, UC Santa Cruz began with the intention to showcase progressive, cross-disciplinary undergraduate education, innovative teaching methods and contemporary architecture. The residential college system consists of ten small colleges that were established as
3434-477: The General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) and an indigenous group at San Francisco State University had set up a table at an event honoring an Edward Said memorial. At the table they had brought stencils for passersby to make signs with. One of the stencils read: "My heroes have always killed colonizers." According to AMCHA, there was also a second stencil of Leila Khaled . AMCHA accused GUPS of "glorifying
3535-728: The History of Consciousness Department are also hosted alongside UCSC's more traditional academic departments. A joint program with UC Hastings enables UC Santa Cruz students to earn a bachelor's degree and Juris Doctor degree in six years instead of the usual seven. The "3+3 BA/JD" Program between UC Santa Cruz and UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco accepted its first applicants in fall 2014. UCSC students who declare their intent in their freshman or early sophomore year will complete three years at UCSC and then move on to UC Hastings to begin
3636-688: The National Science Foundation 's Center for Adaptive Optics. Off-campus research facilities maintained by UCSC include the Lick and Keck Observatories, the Long Marine Laboratory , and the Westside Research Park. From September 2003 to July 2016, UCSC managed a University Affiliated Research System ( UARC ) for the NASA Ames Research Center under a task order contract valued at more than $ 330 million. UC Santa Cruz
3737-652: The Ohlone peoples, lived in what is now the campus of UCSC. During this time, the missionaries of Mission Santa Cruz removed a part of the forest to build a vineyard on top of what is now the Great Meadow. After the California Gold Rush , many mining firms came to the area. The Cowell Lime Works operated on the entirety of what is now the Santa Cruz campus until 1920. Although some of the original founders had already outlined plans for an institution like UCSC as early as
3838-579: The 1930s, the opportunity to realize their vision did not present itself until the City of Santa Cruz made a bid to the UC Board of Regents in the mid-1950s to build a campus just outside town, in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains . During the mid-1950s, there was widespread public sentiment in favor of the establishment of a new UC campus somewhere south of the original campus at Berkeley . In 1957,
3939-405: The 1960s . Santa Cruz quickly became the "counterculture campus" where students and faculty either " mellowed out " among the redwood trees or turned into " activist-radical[s] ". For example, when Kerr came to deliver an address at UC Santa Cruz's first commencement exercises in 1969, the ceremony was hijacked by students who denounced Kerr and McHenry for having "planned and created Santa Cruz as
4040-657: The AMCHA initiative saying that it had " developed a reputation for misrepresentation of facts against individuals and institutions." and admonishing them for "their continued ill intent and propaganda style tactics" and recommending "that AMCHA cease its bullying and encourage it to find a more productive, collegial and humane manner with which to express its political views without sensationalism , vitriol or malice." In 2014 Students for Justice in Palestine and allied groups at UCLA asked candidates for student government positions to pledge to not go on trips to Israel sponsored by AIPAC ,
4141-622: The American university is built, ... Moreover, its definition of anti-Semitism is so undiscriminating as to be meaningless. Instead of encouraging openness through its efforts, AMCHA’s approach closes off all but the most narrow intellectual directions and has a chilling effect on research and teaching. AMCHA’s methods lend little support to Israel, whose very survival depends on free, open, and vigorous debate about its future. ... AMCHA’s tactics are designed to stifle debate on issues debated in Israel and around
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4242-512: The Ben Lomond Mountain ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains . Elevation varies from 285 feet (87 m) at the campus entrance to 1,195 feet (364 m) at the northern boundary, a difference of about 900 feet (270 m). The southern portion of the campus primarily consists of a large, open meadow , locally known as the Great Meadow. To the north of the meadow lie most of the campus' buildings, many of them among redwood groves. The campus
4343-536: The Central California Coast area in order to help better understand the history of the region. Originally concentrated in the economic history of the area, it expanded to also cover the social and cultural history of the region before expanding its scope in 1967 to include a series of interviews on the history of UCSC and the Lick Observatory. These series of interviews later expanded in scope and lead to
4444-470: The Decal program. As a result, the proposed course did not receive a sufficient degree of scrutiny to ensure that the syllabus met Berkeley’s academic standards before it was opened for enrollment to students... For that reason, approval for the course has been suspended pending completion of the mandated review and approval process. But following criticism from Palestine Legal and other pro-Palestinian organizations
4545-411: The Great Meadow, so it would be close to the existing city of Santa Cruz. The second plan, conceived by Thomas Church , put the colleges into the redwood forest at the top of the hill above the Great Meadow. This was clearly the better idea, but presented the problem of how to place the colleges inside the forest. The original design for College One ( Cowell College ) scattered its buildings among
4646-510: The Haym Salomon Center, called the course faculty sponsor, Hatem Bazian, "a street orator whose disgust with America is such that he called for an American Intifada." The campaign was initially successful and the course was suspended. University Chancellor Nicholas Dirks wrote: The facilitator for the course in question did not comply with policies and procedures that govern the normal academic review and approval of proposed courses for
4747-522: The International Living Center, Redwood Grove, Porter transfer community, and the Village. Coursework, academic majors and general areas of study are not limited by college membership, although colleges host the offices of many other academic departments. Graduate students are not affiliated with a residential college, though a large portion of their offices have historically tended to be based in
4848-523: The Israeli government to deny entry to boycott supporters. Over several years, AMCHA campaigned against mathematics professor David Klein at California State University Northridge (CSUN) who used the CSUN website and resources to publish information critical of Israel and pro-BDS. AMCHA submitted memos and complaints, first to CSUN administrators and later to Californian legal authorities regarding Klein's page, but
4949-781: The Nations , Scholars for Peace in the Middle East , Simon Wiesenthal Center , StandWithUs , and the Zionist Organization of America ) recited the allegations against Abdulhadi in a June 24 letter addressed to the California State Controller but the Controller's office dismissed the complaint. On June 25, 2014, the Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies of SFSU, in a public statement on the university website, while recognizing their right to free expression, strongly criticized
5050-850: The Palestinians. AMCHA therefore wants universities to adopt the State Department's definition of anti-Semitism which, according to AMCHA, would classify many students' pro-BDS activities as anti-Semitic. For example, campus protests erecting walls to symbolize the Israeli West Bank barrier and demonstrations distributing mock eviction notices to highlight Israeli house demolitions against Palestinians would both be deemed as anti-Semitic, according to AMCHA. AMCHA describes its mission as "investigating, documenting, educating about, and combating antisemitism at institutions of higher education in America" with
5151-429: The United States. Its central tactic is to label any and all critical statements or questions about the Israeli state as "anti-Semitic"." As of 2020, AMCHA has produced 15 reports which it lists on its website. Those that have been mentioned in media are: AMCHA publishes a database of what it considers to be anti-Semitic incidents on American campuses, starting with incidents from 2015. The database and other trackers by
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#17328587793485252-663: The University Libraries contain over 2.4 million volumes. In 2008, UCSC agreed to house the Grateful Dead archives at the McHenry Library . Exhibits of Grateful Dead Archive materials are on display in the Brittingham Family Foundation's Dead Central Gallery on the 2nd Floor of McHenry Library. The Dead Central exhibit space is open during all library business hours. UCSC plans to devote an entire room at
5353-411: The University of California." In the Regents report “Principles Against Intolerance,” “Expressions of anti-Semitism are more coded and difficult to identify....In particular, opposition to Zionism is often expressed in ways that are not simply statements of disagreement over politics and policy, but also assertions of prejudice and intolerance toward Jewish people and culture.” Rossman-Benjamin celebrated
5454-406: The University reinstated the course. AMCHA led a year-long lobbying campaign, uniting over 50 pro-Israeli organizations, to get UC to label anti-Zionism as a form of anti-Semitism. On March 22, 2016, the Regents of UC passed a Statement of Principles Against Intolerance which included the statement, "Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at
5555-553: The additional students on campus, and to pay municipal development and water fees. George Blumenthal, UCSC's 10th Chancellor, intended to mitigate growth constraints in Santa Cruz by developing off-campus sites in Silicon Valley . The NASA Ames Research Center campus is planned to ultimately hold 2,000 UCSC students – about 10% of the entire university's future student body as envisioned for 2020. In April 2010, UC Santa Cruz opened its new $ 35 million Digital Arts Research Center;
5656-461: The archives of Robert A. Heinlein , the papers of Anaïs Nin , the papers and drawings of Beat poet Kenneth Patchen , the largest collection of Edward Weston photographs in the United States, the mycology book collection of composer John Cage , a large collection of works by Satyajit Ray , the Hayden White collection of 16th-century Italian printing, a photography collection with nearly half
5757-545: The best public game design colleges in the U.S. UC Santa Cruz was ranked top 10 in excellence in undergraduate teaching in 2022 and third in research influence in 2018. In 2017 Kiplinger ranked UC Santa Cruz 50th out of the top 100 best-value public colleges and universities in the nation, and 3rd in California. Money Magazine ranked UC Santa Cruz 41st in the country out of the nearly 1500 schools it evaluated for its 2016 Best Colleges ranking. In 2016–2017, UC Santa Cruz
5858-427: The campaign, on December 13, 2019, all ten UC Chancellors signed onto a statement that reaffirmed their opposition to the academic boycott of Israel. In 2020, San Francisco State University professors Rabab Abdulhadi and Tomomi Kinukawa organized an event called "Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice and Resistance: A Conversation with Leila Khaled ". Khaled is a convicted terrorist barred from entering several countries,
5959-417: The campus being built on a mountainside with varying elevations. At night, orange lights illuminate the occasionally fogged-in paths. There are a number of natural points of interest throughout the UCSC grounds. The "Porter Caves" are a popular site among students on the west side of campus. The entrance is located in the forest between the Porter College meadow and Empire Grade Road. The caves wind through
6060-432: The campus for at least one day the following week. The arrival of the COVID-19 Pandemic led to the end of the strike. On August 7, 2020, UCSC agreed to reinstate 41 graduate student-workers, allowing them to be rehired by their respective departments, while also agreeing to seal their disciplinary records and reinstate their funding guarantees. In return, UAW, who represents UC graduate student-workers but did not authorize
6161-475: The campus property has remained in its undeveloped, forested state apart from fire roads and hiking and bicycle trails. The heavily forested area has allowed UC Santa Cruz to operate a recreational vehicle park as a form of student housing since 1984. However in 2024 UCSC announced the closure of this park, known as the camper park, due to rising concerns about fire safety, along with mold issues and rising maintenance requests that had created an unsafe situation in
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#17328587793486262-427: The colleges. The ten colleges are, in order of establishment: 25th-75th percentile 25th-75th percentile For the fall 2024 term, UCSC offered admission to 46,582 freshmen out of 71,700 applicants, an acceptance rate of 65.0%. The entering freshman class had an average high school GPA of 4.01, with the middle 50% range 3.87 to 4.22. For most of its history, UCSC employed a unique student evaluation system. With
6363-466: The counterculture of the 1960s together with the university's establishment fundamentally altered its subsequent development. Early student and faculty activism at UCSC pioneered an approach to environmentalism that greatly impacted the industrial development of the surrounding area. The lowering of the voting age to 18 in 1971 led to the emergence of a powerful student-voting bloc. A large and growing population of politically liberal UCSC alumni changed
6464-439: The decision to develop a residential college system that would house most of the students on-campus. The formal design process for the Santa Cruz campus began in the late 1950s, culminating in the Long Range Development Plan of 1963. 1963 was also the year when the Regional History Project, an oral history project and the first major research project of UCSC, was started. Its purpose was originally to interview longtime residents of
6565-476: The electorate of the town from predominantly Republican to markedly left-leaning , consistently voting against expansion measures on the part of both town and gown . Plans for increasing enrollment to 19,500 students and adding 1,500 faculty and staff by 2020, and the anticipated environmental impacts of such action, encountered opposition from the city, the local community, and the student body. City voters in 2006 passed two measures calling on UCSC to pay for
6666-427: The exception of the choice of letter grades in science courses the only grades assigned were "pass" and "no record", supplemented with narrative evaluations . Beginning in 1997, UCSC allowed students the option of selecting letter grade evaluations, but course grades were still optional until 2000, when faculty voted to require students receive letter grades. Students were still given narrative evaluations to complement
6767-490: The following demands: (1) a COLA (cost of living adjustment) of $ 1,412/month to address the housing crisis in Santa Cruz, (2) a promise of non-retaliation against those participating in the strike, and (3) a cap on tuition for undergraduate students, to ensure that the increase in graduate student-worker pay would not increase the rent-burden and precarity of their students. On February 10, 2020, graduate student-workers responded to disciplinary threats from UCSC administrators with
6868-427: The group ceases its "bullying" and find a "more productive, collegial and humane manner" to express its political views without "sensationalism, vitriol or malice", while recognizing their right to free expression. In October 2014, a group of purported Jewish studies professors wrote in The Forward : Its technique of monitoring lectures, symposia and conferences strains the basic principle of academic freedom on which
6969-399: The guest speakers were "politically motivated, meet our government’s criteria for antisemitism, and are intended to indoctrinate students to hate the Jewish state and take action to eliminate it." Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League joined in on the criticism and called the course a "travesty" and "distortion of history." One fierce critic, professor emeritus Abraham H. Miller of
7070-406: The impacts of campus growth. A Santa Cruz Superior Court judge invalidated the measures, ruling they were improperly put on the ballot. In 2008, the university, city, county and neighborhood organizations reached an agreement to set aside numerous lawsuits and allow the expansion to occur. UCSC agreed to local government scrutiny of its north campus expansion plans, to provide housing for 67 percent of
7171-580: The intent "to protect Jewish students from both direct and indirect assault and fear while attending colleges and universities." AMCHA also says on its website that it "is not an Israel advocacy organization, nor does it take a position on current or past Israeli government policies." The editors of the book We Will Not Be Silenced: The Academic Repression of Israel's Critics describe the AMCHA as "a Zionist organization based in California that collaborates with other Zionist individuals and groups to suppress speech critical of Israel on university campuses across
7272-466: The intimacy of a smaller college. Kerr shared a passion with former Stanford roommate McHenry to build a university modeled as "several Swarthmores " (i.e., small liberal arts colleges ) in close proximity to each other. Both men were well aware that Santa Cruz "was located in the shadow not only of Berkeley but also of Stanford, and was bound to remain in their shadows for a very long time to come and perhaps forever." Therefore, they hoped to shape
7373-486: The letter grades. As of 2010 , the narrative evaluations were deemed an unnecessary expenditure. Still, some professors write evaluations for all students while some would write evaluations for specific students upon request. Students can still elect to receive a "pass/no pass" grade, but many academic programs limit or even forbid pass/no pass grading. A grade of C and above would receive a grade of "pass". Overall, students may now earn no more than 25% of their UCSC credits on
7474-423: The library, to be called "Dead Central", to display the collection and encourage research. The Grateful Dead Archive represents one of the most significant popular culture collections of the 20th Century and documents the band's activity and influence in contemporary music from 1965 to 1995. UCSC beat out petitions from Stanford and UC Berkeley to house the archives. Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir said that UCSC
7575-464: The limbs to make it nearly impossible to climb. Less experienced tree-climbers also used to frequent Sunset Tree located on the east side of the meadow behind the UCSC Music Center, but the lower branches of this tree were also cut off to make climbing the tree difficult. The UCSC campus is also one of the few homes to Mima Mounds in the United States. They are rare in the United States and in
7676-419: The murder of Jews" and demanded that the university must investigate and punish the students. The university released a statement supportive of AMCHA's charges, stating that "celebrating violence or promoting intolerance, bigotry, antisemitism or any other form of hate mongering" would not be tolerated at SFSU. But following a public outcry, the university issued a second statement underscoring "that social justice
7777-443: The nation. Although designed as a liberal arts-oriented university, UCSC quickly acquired a graduate-level natural science research component with the appointment of plant physiologist Kenneth V. Thimann as the first provost of Crown College . Thimann developed UCSC's early Division of Natural Sciences and recruited other well-known science faculty and graduate students to the fledgling campus. Immediately upon its founding, UCSC
7878-578: The northern campus. These structures, mostly assembled from branches and other forest detritus, were formerly concentrated in the area known as Elfland, a glen the university razed in 1992 to build colleges Nine and Ten. Students were able to relocate and save some of the structures, however. Creeks traverse the UCSC campus within several ravines. Footbridges span those ravines on pedestrian paths linking various areas of campus. The footbridges make it possible to walk to any part of campus within 20 minutes in spite of
7979-638: The organization have been used by media to cite anti-Semitic activity and swastika sightings on various campuses including at Stanford University , Bowdoin College as well as across the nation. AMCHA maintains a webpage that lists quotes detailing the experiences of Jewish students on American campuses who have been "targeted, intimidated or frightened because they are Jewish." The quotes were collected starting in 2014. The webpage had more than 100 students, located at 47 different schools, in 20 states as of June 24, 2015. The quotes are gathered from publications nationwide including school papers. In 2014, AMCHA began
8080-473: The park. In 2017 the University finished building the Coastal Science Facility for the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. The facility, equipped with teaching classrooms, labs and greenhouses, is located on McAllister Way. In the same year, renovations to the campus' Quarry Amphitheater were completed. A number of shrines , dens and other student-built curiosities are scattered around
8181-546: The partial exception of those majors run through the university's Baskin School of Engineering, is still based on the version of the " residential college system " outlined by Clark Kerr and Dean McHenry at the inception of their original plans for the campus (see History , above). Upon admission, all undergraduate students have the opportunity to choose one of ten colleges, with which they usually stay affiliated for their entire undergraduate careers. There are cases where some students switch college affiliations as each college holds
8282-495: The pledge and asked the VP of Student Affairs to intervene. In mid-January 2014, the co-founder of BDS, Omar Barghouti , was scheduled to speak at three UC schools; UCLA , UC Riverside, and UC Davis. AMCHA alleged that sponsoring Barghouti's presentations violated UC policies and state law. UC leadership responded by stating that they were not in support of a boycott of Israel, but considered Barghouti's presentations to be free speech. In
8383-448: The professor was found not to have violated any CSUN rules nor any law. CSUN president Dianne F. Harrison addressed the complaints in May 2012, writing: "To censor the website would be contrary to the important value of free speech and send the disturbing message that the university is willing to restrict an individual’s right to personal expression due to disagreement with those views." In 2013,
8484-432: The public announcement of the Regents' decision immediately caused property values throughout that area to increase to the extent that the Regents could no longer afford to buy the necessary land. After another year of study, the Regents finally selected Santa Cruz as the location of the next UC campus. However, Santa Cruz was selected for the beauty, rather than the practicality, of its location, and its remoteness led to
8585-527: The public trust in your university to uphold its academic mission and ensure the safety and well-being of all of its students". Zoom Video Communications cancelled the event, saying that it is "committed to supporting the open exchange of ideas and conversations, subject to certain limitations contained in our Terms of Service, including those related to user compliance with applicable U.S. export control, sanctions and anti-terrorism laws". Zoom, in particular, said that Khaled's "reported affiliation or membership in
8686-462: The state and the taxpayers of California." Her primary complaint was that Abdulhadi had met with the controversial Islamic preacher Raed Salah and Leila Khaled. She therefore coordinated a letter from eight pro-Israel organizations to the university administration demanding an investigation into the matter. Abdulhadi defended herself by noting that on the trip they met with 198 individuals from 89 organizations and that dialogue with controversial figures
8787-449: The statement, calling it huge," while critics condemned it. Dima Khalidi, the director of Palestine Legal, said that pro-Israeli groups had "succeeded in convincing the regents that Palestine advocacy is inherently anti-Semitic, and should be condemned." AMCHA Initiative launched a campaign involving more than 100 Jewish pro-Israel organizations to get American education-leaders to sign a letter voicing their opposition to BDS. In response to
8888-456: The strike at any point, agreed to drop complaints filed on behalf of the graduate student-workers. UCSC also granted graduate student-workers a $ 2,500 annual housing stipend, but did not grant the COLA adjustment or cap on tuition for undergraduate students. Although the city of Santa Cruz already exhibited a strong conservation ethic before the founding of the university, the coincidental rise of
8989-467: The three-year law curriculum. Credits from the first year of law school will count toward a student's bachelor's degree. Students who successfully complete the first-year law course work will receive their bachelor's degree and be able to graduate with their UCSC class, then continue at UC Hastings afterwards for two years. According to the National Science Foundation , UC Santa Cruz spent $ 234.3 million on research and development in 2023, ranking it 55th in
9090-412: The trees, which was sarcastically compared by one regent to "a series of motels on the shores of Lake Tahoe ." Having recently visited Aigues-Mortes , UC President Clark Kerr was inspired by the layout of that French medieval town to suggest concentrating each college's buildings into distinct clusters in the forest, and that is how UC Santa Cruz was actually built. Construction started by 1964, and
9191-485: The university was able to accommodate its first students (albeit living in trailers on what is now the East Field athletic area) in 1965. The campus was intended to be a showcase for contemporary architecture, progressive teaching methods, and undergraduate research. According to founding chancellor Dean McHenry , the purpose of the distributed college system was to combine the benefits of a major research university with
9292-691: The world in general. The university has 5 academic divisions and 1 School (In parentheses their founding): Arts (2017), Social Sciences (2017), Humanities (2017), Graduate Studies (2017) Physical & Biological Sciences (2017), and Baskin School of Engineering (1997). Together, they offer 66 graduate programs, 74 undergraduate majors, and 43 minors. Popular undergraduate majors include Art, Business Management Economics , Chemistry , Molecular and Cell Biology , Physics , and Psychology . Interdisciplinary programs, such as Computational Media, Feminist Studies, Environmental Studies , Visual Studies, Digital Arts and New Media, Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, and
9393-402: The world, and the presumption that students must be protected from their own universities is misguided and destructive. Efforts such as these do not promote academic integrity, but rather serve to deaden the kind of spirited academic exchange that is the lifeblood of the university. University of California Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz ( UC Santa Cruz or UCSC )
9494-410: The worst afternoons of my life." According to Kerr's account, during the 1970s, the quality of UC Santa Cruz's incoming freshman classes deteriorated as Me generation students increasingly chose to matriculate at less experimental UC campuses in order to major in subjects such as engineering and business administration (both absent from Santa Cruz). Another major factor behind the decrease in quality
9595-427: Was a series of "grisly murders" around Santa Cruz, which at the time was labeled the "murder capital of the world". The average SAT scores of UC Santa Cruz's incoming students dropped from 1250 in the early 1970s to 1050 by the early 1980s. A series of major reforms were implemented by Chancellor Robert Sinsheimer (1977–1987) at the cost of making Santa Cruz less experimental and more conventional. In 1981, after
9696-489: Was also granted administrative responsibility for the Lick Observatory , which established the campus as a major center for astronomy research. Founding members of the Social Science and Humanities faculty created the unique History of Consciousness graduate program in UCSC's first year of operation. Famous former UCSC faculty members include Judith Butler and Angela Davis . UCSC's organic farm and garden program
9797-632: Was an important part of academia. The university reviewed the records for Abdulhadi's travel and issued a statement in June dismissing the allegations as meritless. The statement underscored that "Abdulhadi’s academic work in race and resistance studies requires examination of some of the world’s most challenging and controversial issues" and that the university "will not censor our scholars nor condone censorship by others." Dissatisfied, AMCHA and seven other pro-Israeli organizations ( Brandeis Center , Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel , Proclaiming Justice to
9898-467: Was finally launched. In 2019, the University of California, Santa Cruz was elected to the Association of American Universities (AAU), the most prestigious alliance of American research universities. Along with UCI , UC Santa Cruz was the youngest university to gain admittance to the AAU. On December 9, 2019, over 200 graduate student-workers initiated a wildcat strike by withholding Fall quarter grades with
9999-404: Was forced to back down in 1986 when the student body voted to support the banana slug instead. By the early 1990s, the campus was still inefficient in that average teaching loads were still light compared to other UC campuses, but SAT scores had stopped falling, the faculty was performing good research, and the campus was beginning to rise in university rankings. In 1997, an engineering school
10100-470: Was ranked 129th in the list of Best Global Universities and tied for 82nd in the list of Best National Universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report ' s 2024 rankings. In 2021, UC Santa Cruz was ranked the No. 3 public university in the nation for "making an impact" and No. 4 for promoting social mobility. In 2023, the university was ranked No. 5 in game/simulation development and No. 2 among
10201-680: Was rated 146th in the world by Times Higher Education World University Rankings . In 2016 it was ranked 83rd in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities and 296th worldwide in 2016 by the QS World University Rankings . In 2009, RePEc, an online database of research economics articles, ranked the UCSC Economics Department sixth in the world in the field of international finance. In 2007, High Times magazine placed UCSC as first among US universities as
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